The Confusion and The Clarity
by Repenexus
Summary: The person who designed this Game clearly knows nothing about Game Design. Because of it, everything has gotten so confusing lately. I've apparently got supernatural powers, I have memories of a past life for some reason, my brother's a future Mafia Boss, and the-voice-in-my-head is apparently a brain alien...but is the truth really worth it? Up for Adoption.
1. An Awakening

Statistic

"A **statistic** (singular) or **sample statistic** is a single measure of some attribute of a sample (e.g. its arithmetic mean value). It is calculated by applying a function (statistical algorithm) to the values of the items of the sample, which are known together as a set of data." (Wikipedia, March 2017).

Statistic is a word that carries a lot of value within its definition. A statistic, or stat to be shorter, is a way of giving a number to something tangible, giving it a new definition.

For instance, IQ tests use specially designed questions to see how intelligent and knowledgeable you are on the subjects the IQ test covers. After the test is taken, your intelligence is given a number that is supposed to express how intelligent you are.

Grades are another kind of statistic. You spend some time in school learning things or at least attempting to learn things, and then you are tested on what you know. You are then, like with IQ tests, given a number to show how much you know about the current subject.

Competitions are designed to give numbers to people, giving numbers closer to one for the faster, stronger, smarter, better people.

But this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to statistics. Statistics can pull up numbers to whatever you want. You want to compare how much your house is worth compared to others? Use a statistic. You want to know what the racial percentage of people in prison is? Use a want to know how many people fall in love by the time they're twenty-five? Use a statistic.

You want to know how many kids die before the age of fifteen? Use a statistic.

… I'm part of the last statistic…

My name is Nick Neumann. I used to be alive. Now I'm dead.

Funny how things work out, right?

When I was alive, I was a pretty good kid. Not very fun to hang around, though. My parents, when raising me, thought it would be better to have a morally good child than to have one that was well socially adjusted. As a result, I was at the top of my class and was the nicest, or at least most well-intentioned kid at school. However, my social skills suffered dramatically as a result. I can see that now, looking back on everything.

My best attempts at conversation were weak at best, and I couldn't understand why people were willing to do things like go and skip class, or make fun of each other - it just didn't register to me why they would do that. And to be honest, I still don't understand why they do that to each other. Why don't they all just try to get along, instead of arguing and fighting?

I didn't really have all that much fun. I didn't watch any movies like other kids, I didn't play any games like other kids, I didn't watch TV like other kids, and I didn't really have fun like other kids. I usually spent my time at home studying religion or academics. I never got to play sports or anything like that. I spent my leisure time reading my parents' encyclopedias, which aside from the dictionaries and other reference books, were the only books we had.

Since I didn't have anything I could connect to my peers with, I didn't. I didn't really talk to anyone, and therefore I made no friends. I was smart, but not athletic or popular by any means. My parents coddled me throughout my short eleven years of life, not even allowing me to walk across the street. Because I had no street smarts, I was unprepared for the day they sent me to ride on the bus by myself.

Long story short, I got run over by a car.

My mom and dad finally decided that it was about time I see the world, and had me go to Ashburn Middle School by walking, instead of driving me there like they usually did.

I thought I knew the rules of pedestrianism - pedestrians walk on the stripey crosswalk and walk when the white person is on the traffic light. Simple rules.

Yet somehow I still got run over by a man driving weirdly across the street, as if he was half-asleep (I realize now that he was a drunk driver).

And now I'm here…

… in the middle of nowhere.

Purgatory (or Limbo) is a strange place. In literature, it tends to be described as an endless white plain or a black abyss. However, I can assure you it really isn't like that.

Purgatory is more like what I've heard acid is like - obscene and strange patterns and fractals flying everywhere, colors infusing everything in an unholy mess. Basically, a kaleidoscope that went overboard. However, it really doesn't hurt my head all that much. It's fascinating if anything. I could stay like this forever.

 **GAME START!**

Wait, What?!

* * *

The streets of Namimori tended to be quiet before the sun rose up in the sky. Ryohei Sasagawa wasn't up yet, so there were no shouts of "EXTREME!". You could occasionally see a baseball player, such as Yamamoto Takeshi, get up early in the morning for some early baseball practice, but other than the early sports players, the buses, and the energetic housewife, Namimori was pretty silent.

(Yet another success for the Disciplinary Committee.)

On one particular morning, on September 7, 20XX, a person steps off a bus. One, based on this sentence alone, would think that there is nothing wrong with a person stepping off of a bus in the wee hours before dawn - it's perfectly logical and possible.

The action itself is very normal, but the person stepping off the bus is very strange indeed. The person who stepped off of the bus is not someone you would expect to ride on buses - or be able to ride anywhere for themselves, for that matter.

The person who stepped off of the bus is a strange little infant, one with beetle black eyes and extremely curly sideburns. The infant wore a strange little suit, one that you would find nowhere else in the world, because who on Earth would create a line of clothes of designer suits for babies and expect them to be more than a joke? Upon the infant's head was a wide-brimmed fedora hat, with a horizontal orange stripe across it. Perched on top of the hat itself was a long and thin chameleon with bulbous orange eyes. Laid on top of the infant's breast was a luminous yellow pacifier, which pulsed rhythmically occasionally.

This strange infant walked across the street of where the bus stop was to arrive at a plain-looking home in the midst of other plain-looking homes. When the baby reached the mailbox, the strange chameleon perched on top of his head jumped off. Then something wondrous occurred. The chameleon, who was relatively unremarkable when compared to the baby, began to glow a myriad of colors. Suddenly, the chameleon shifted and grew to form a green stepladder. The infant stepped onto the stepladder and placed a folded letter from the inside of one of his pockets inside the mailbox.

The infant stepped off the stool and stood still for a second. By a silent command, the shape-shifting chameleon turned back into his base state, and the infant crossed the street to wait for another bus - he still had a lot of work to do.

Meanwhile, a fairly unremarkable housewife stepped of her house. She opened her arms wide. _What a beautiful day_ , she thought to herself as she stretched out her body to ready herself for the day. She walked over to the mailbox to see if anything was inside. To her surprise, there was a letter in the mailbox. She picked it up and read it.

Thus events were set in motion that would change the course of fate forever.

Not that that's special or anything. Everything changes the course of fate.

* * *

"Shichi-kun, wake up." Noooo… I want to keep sleeping… it's too early to get up for school.

"Shichi-kun, it's time to go to school. Wake up." Kaa-chan said, a little more sternly before. Of course, I was awake now, but I'm not getting up - my bed is way to comfortable for that.

 _Shichi, wake up!_

'Oh…,' I yawned. 'Good morning'.

 _Good morning to you too, Shichi. Now get up - we don't want to be late for school today. Miyazaki-sensei is giving our math test today. We studied hard for it, too, and Mom will be happy if we bring a good grade this time. You remember how she looks for us to succeed, right?_

'Yes, yes, I remember all right. Now pipe down. I have to change my clothes and get dressed.' I yawned again. I stayed up all night trying to study for my math test. I think I've done a good job - usually, I get average grades on my tests and quizzes, averaging somewhere around a 70 or a 71. This time, though, we studied extra hard, so I think we'll do pretty good this time around.

 _Yeah! That's the spirit, Shichi._

'Please be quiet - I need to get dressed.' I quickly throw on my school uniform, which was part of the laundry Kaa-chan had done the night before. I spend thirty seconds or so brushing my teeth, before running downstairs. I can hear Kaa-chan berate Aniki about his awful math grades in the next room, and my resolve to get a good grade on the math test grows.

I sit at the breakfast table, waiting for Kaa-chan to come down so I can eat breakfast (as I'm only nine years old, I have yet to learn how to actually cook.) As Kaa-chan and Aniki keep on arguing about a home tutor or something, I begin to feel drowsy again. I probably shouldn't have spent all of last night studying - a good night sleep would have more pleasant right about now.

 _Shichi, stay awake! You need to be at your smartest for the test today._ But Dreamland had already laid claim to my mind. My head falls forward, hitting the table with a nasty crack as I fall asleep from exhaustion again.

 **Ding! -5 HP**

And my head flies back upward because I thought I heard a chime, and a chime in this kitchen means food. Sleep comes after food, always.

 _You're awake!_

Yet Kaa-chan hasn't made food yet - there aren't any good smells yet. In fact, looking around, all I see is her looking downwards at something in the hallway. I also hear a high-pitched tone that sounds strangely unnatural, but at this point, all I want is food and sleep.

And because I'm not going to be getting food any time soon, it's time to go back to LalaLand.

 _Shichi, no!_

This time, I don't crack my head, and I go off to a nice, soft sleep

* * *

 _I slowly chew my organic and healthy lunch, which tastes slightly of cardboard as I read my computer science book. Wow, programming variables seem so useful!_

" _Hey, Nick, can you come over here for a second?"_

 _Suddenly, I forget all about my food and variables and instantly run as fast as I can toward whoever was calling me - someone wanted me around them for a change!_

 _I quickly run to the lunch table a couple of places away from my own in the cafeteria. Panting and wheezing, I ask the person who called what they wanted._

" _Hey, can you do these last couple of English problems for me? I sort of forgot to do them, and class is after lunch. I'd really appreciate it - in fact, I'll let you sit next to us while you do it."_

 _This sounded like one of my wildest dreams - someone was actually talking to me of their own volition, and they wanted me to sit next to them! This could possibly be the best day of my life!_

* * *

" _Mommy, what happens to us when we die?" I ask Mommy curiously._

 _Mommy looked over at me with a funny look on her face, like someone splashed really hot water on her face. She then put another weird look on her face, like she was eating a lemon. This was fun. Finally, Mommy's face turned normal again._

" _Nick, dear, when people die they go somewhere very special," Mommy said to me. I frowned._

" _But Mommy, we put them into the ground. How can they go anywhere if they're stuck in the ground?"_

" _Their body stays here with us, Nick. Their mind, though, goes somewhere special." She explained._

" _Where does their mind go, Mommy?"_

" _Some people believe that nothing happens to the mind when they die. These people are Atheists. Other people believe that when we die our mind goes into a new person's body and we live again and again, over and over. We believe, Nick, that when we die we get judged for our faith and our niceness, and if we're good enough we go to a wonderful place called Heaven. If we are bad, though, we go to a place called Hell."_

" _What if we aren't good or bad?"_

" _Then we go to a place called Purgatory, where nothing happens to you."_

" _Nothing? No books or people or games?"_

" _There are no games in Purgatory, Nick."_

* * *

 _I stepped on to the sidewalk. Now I'm only a couple of blocks away from school if the map Mom gave is true. A gargantuan smile grew on my face. I can't wait to tell Mom that I was able to walk to school all by myself for a change. She'll be so proud of me!_

 _I walked across the asphalt, confident and prepared for what the future will bring._

 _Then there was a scream and a flash of light._

 _And everything disappeared._

 _Everything._

* * *

... _Shichi!... Shichi, wake up!_

Qu-quiet… my head hurts…

… _Shichi, what did you just say?_

O-ow…

 _Shichi, speak Japanese!_

O-oh, right… Ow…

 _Shichi, you were thinking in a strange language right now! How did you learn it?_

There was a pause from the both of us.

 _Never mind, I'll look in your head and find out._

Then the pain multiplied.

Sometimes having an autonomous voice in your head (that can apparently read your thoughts and memories) really, really sucks.

 _Shichi, some of these memories aren't yours! Over half of your memories belong to this guy called Nick Neumann. What happened?_

I don't know! I felt sleepy, and I went to sleep, and then I regain a boatload of memories.

 _Regain? What do you mean, regain? Are you saying you_ are _Nick Neumann?_

I remember being Nick Neumann more than being Shichi, that's for sure.

 _But how? Right now, you are Shichi, not Nick!_

Something about the voice's logic seemed rather strange to me, but I decided to let it go.

 _Hey!_

Say, what _are_ you, anyway. I know that normal people don't have voices in their head, and if they do they tend to have schizophrenia. I didn't have you in my head when I was Nick. I never questioned what you are, either.

 _What's schizo…_ There was a bit of rustling in my mind, and the pain temporarily increased a little bit. _I'm not a mental disease, Shichi!_

Then what _are_ you?

 _I don't know. There's nothing in your memories about what I am, other than a voice in your head, and my own personal memories only start when I first met you._

When was that? I remember you always being with me as Shichi.

 _When you were around two or something, it's a little fuzzy what happened back then._

"Shichi-kun, what are you doing here? You're late, you should be at school already!" Kaa-chan mentioned, coming into the room.

But I didn't notice her, because something strange suddenly popped up.

 **Request! [Get to School!]**

 **[Nana Sawada] requests you to [Get to School]**

 **Timed**

 **Objectives:**

 **Finish getting ready**

 **Walk to school**

 **Sit in your seat before the bell rings**

 **Success: None**

 **Failure: -7 REP with [Shota Miyazaki]**

 **Scolding from [Shota Miyazaki]**

What…?

 _Shichi, what is this?_

A translucent black panel with white text appeared in front of my eyes.

That has never happened before, neither as Shichi nor as Nick.

… Yup, I'm crazy. Voices in my head, and now I'm hallucinating. (Granted, I've never hallucinated before, but still).

 _You're not crazy, Shichi. I'm real, this… panel is real, and you should be glad that you've never hallucinated, either._ The voice complained.

 _I can hear you think, you know._

Yeah, yeah. I then noticed a digital clock with green numbers counting down from **00:25:00** in the corner of my eye.

'Wait… looking at this panel, it says that I have to get to school before I'm late, which is in… 25 minutes!' I noticed, looking at the clock in the kitchen. It and the strange new digital clock were eerily synchronized.

 _That new clock is probably a timer for how long the Request will last - it did say that it was timed after all._

Right, Right… Wait, I'm going to be late!

Not even sparing a glance at Kaa-chan, I grabbed my food which was next to me, scarfed it down as fast as I dared, took my book bag, then quickly ran out the door.

Only to be stopped by another translucent panel.

 **Objective 1 - Cleared!**

 **Objective 2 - Walk to school**

I stopped short. This… thing… reacted to my actions.

 _Objective 1 was to get ready, Shichi. Once you completed it, it went on to the next objective._

That seems to be the case… But then who built this? What kind of a creep is tracking all of my movements and making me hallucinate these strange panels? _What is happening?_

 _I don't know, but let's play along, for now, to find out more. I'll figure it out as we go along._

All right, all right… So now we have to get to school, right?

 _Right._

I then quickly resumed my walk to school, with **00:21:42** on the clock. I can make it to school by then - we live somewhat close to Namimori Primary School, so I can get there by walking. I've done it before, after all.

 _The walks were nice, too. The air is so crisp and clean… I like this new vocabulary we have, Shichi._

Me too.

Nothing of note occurred for the first five minutes, just me running as fast as I can, because while I do live close to Namimori Primary, it is still a considerable distance away, and I'm only a nine year old, after all.

Then, at roughly **00:14:12** , I truly encountered the first person since I woke up from cracking my head on the desk.

The man, by himself, was normal, because he didn't have anything strange or weird on his face or anything. He was just watering some flowers in the late summer morning. But…

Why are there blue words on top of his head?

 **Lv 18**

 **Gardener**

 **Akio Watanabe**

 **PW - 6**

Okay, I'm getting tired of being shocked. Too many weird things have been happening this morning. I'll think about it later after I've taken my test. Okay, back to running!

 _Yeah, Let's Go!_ The voice cheered. He apparently agreed with me. _We need to do the test right now. Let's figure this out later._

So I kept running.

Unfortunately, we were stopped again, at **00:11:42** , ten minutes after I had started running

 **Skill Re-obtained!**

 **Sprinting Lv(2/10) - 12.6%**

 **The ability to run as fast as you can go**

 **Cost: N/A**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 **AB: +(Lv)P to AGI**

 **PB: +(Lv/2)P to AGI**

I spared ten seconds to read all of it, so the voice would be able to memorize it for later.

… _okay, I've memorized it_.

Then we were off again.

A little under nine minutes afterward, we had finally reached the school.

And I am _way_ too out of breath for this. I don't think I've ever run this long in my life, which is pathetic.

 **You've run through the pain: +1 END**

 **Objective 2 - Cleared!**

 **Objective 3 - Sit in your seat before the bell rings**

 _Shichi, wait a second so I can memorize this one as well_

I've already stopped - go ahead. Just… let me catch my breath

A couple of seconds later, the voice confirmed its memorization. The voice's perfect memory was one of its boons, thankfully.

 _Just one of my many talents, Shichi_

… although, it talks too much.

Ignoring the Voice's protests, I quickly ran through the gates of the school, two and a half minutes on the clock. With ten flashing red seconds left on the digital clock, I managed to get in the nearly full classroom and took my seat, amid snickers.

 **Objective 3 - Cleared!**

 **Request Complete! [Get to School!]**

 **[Nana Sawada] requests you to [Get to School]**

 **Timed**

 **Objectives:**

 **Finish getting ready -** ✔

 **Walk to school -** ✔

 **Sit in your seat before the bell rings -** ✔

 **SUCCESS**

At this point, I no longer cared - give me the test already!

After our class meeting, Miyazaki-sensei came in, looking as bored as he usually does. Everybody can tell he doesn't really put his heart into teaching - you would have to be an idiot not to notice it. Half-lidded stare, bags under his eyes, the works.

 _He really needs to get some sleep…_

Above Miyazaki-sensei's head was another batch of words, similar to the words on the gardener's head. These words, however, were in a rose-red rather than the blue on the gardener's head.

 **Lv 17**

 **Primary School Teacher**

 **Shota Miyazaki**

 **PW - 6**

These things are everywhere!

Miyazaki-sensei coughed a couple of times. "Sorry, class. I've had a cold for the past couple days, so I'm not up to my usual standards". Well, that was saying something. "Get out your materials. I hope you've studied for your test." He waited for most of us to get ready. I just need my pencil - it's nothing too hard. Once the clattering ended and everyone got our respective writing utensils (what's _wrong_ with me, I didn't even know what "writing utensil" meant until this morning), Miyazaki-sensei cleared his throat one more time.

"Begin!"

As if on cue, another panel appeared.

 **Request! [Take the Test!]**

 **[Shota Miyazaki] requests you to [Take the Test!]**

 **Timed**

 **Objectives:**

 **1.)Sign Name on Test**

 **2.)Take Test**

 **3.)Turn in Test**

 **4.)Get at least 70% of Question right on Test**

 **Bonus Objectives:**

 **1.)Get at least 90% of Questions right on Test**

 **Success: None**

 **Bonus Objective Success: +10 REP with [ Shota Miyazaki]**

 **+20 REP with [Nana Sawada]**

 **Failure: -7 REP with [Shota Miyazaki]**

 **-50 REP with [Nana Sawada]**

Then another digital clock appeared, this time counting from

You know, I'm getting really tired of seeing these Requests. They're large, annoying, and hard to read. No to mention confusing.

 _Shichi, it's not that bad. It has a penchant for stating the obvious, but it is still somewhat useful. You never knew Watanabe-san's name before now. It can tell you people's names, and that's really helpful._

You memorize people's names for me, Voice. Anyway, it's time to use what I've learned on this test.

I could almost feel the Voice nodding. _Good luck_. I then felt the Voice temporarily retreat from my mind. Alright, time to test! I quickly signed my name on the test, only to be annoyed when another panel comes in.

 **Objective 1 - Cleared!**

 **Objective 2 - Take Test**

My patience is beginning to run out with these panels.

I began my test. However, once I began, I realized that something was a bit off. I shrugged off the feeling as nervousness and continued. However, the more I worked, the more the weird feeling grew. My hand moved faster and faster across the prob- wait, that's it, HOW AM I DOING THIS SO FAST?!

The questions which I had nearly torn my luxurious hair out last night were suddenly ten times easier as if I had done them a million times before. I've always had trouble with multiple digit multiplication, the steps in-between always eluding me, but now it comes to me naturally.

HOW? I… wait…

The memories! The memories of Nick Neumann! Nick has done these kinds of problems a million times before. His experience has probably transferred to me.

Feeling incredibly giddy, I breeze through the rest of the test, finishing my test with a flourish.

 **You've pushed your brains to the max: +1 INT**

 **Objective 2 - Cleared!**

 **Objective 3 - Turn in Test**

 **Skill Re-obtained!**

 **Penmanship Lv(3/10) - 28.7%**

 **The ability to write down words purposefully and skillfully**

 **Cost: N/A**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 **AB: +(Lv) DEX in Hand, +(Lv) Rep with those that read the written word**

 **PB: +(Lv/4) DEX**

At this point, I could care less about these annoying panels. I probably aced a test for the first time in my life, and without anyone's help, too (Nick Neumann doesn't count). Let's turn this thing in.

 _Hold your horses, Shichi. We still haven't got your grade back - we haven't given it at all, for starters. Let's check our work and then turn it in._

Ugh. Fiiiiinnnneeee. I quickly look over my work and satisfied that I haven't done anything wrong, walked over to where the other people have placed their papers and place it in the pile.

Well, I try, at least. My hand, won't let go of the paper, for some reason. I panic because this is _unnatural_.

 **Would you like to Submit the Test?  
(Y/N)**

At this point, I've had enough of these panels. I press Yes because it's clear that the idiotic panels won't let me turn in my test otherwise.

 **Test Submitted!**

My hand lets go on its own, and my test flutters down neatly to land perfectly on the pile. Ugh… these panels are so annoying. I've wished life was more like video games before, because who hasn't, but it really gets in the way more than it deserves to.

 **Objective 3 - Cleared!**

 **Objective 4 - Cleared!**

 **Bonus Objective - Cleared!**

 **Request Complete! [Take the Test!]**

 **[Shota Miyazaki] requests you to [Take the Test]**

 **Timed**

 **Objectives:**

 **1.)Sign Name on Test -** ✔

 **2.)Take Test -** ✔

 **3.)Turn in Test -** ✔

 **4.)Get at least 70% of Question right on Test -** ✔

 **Bonus Objectives:**

 **1.)Get at least 90% of Questions right on Test -** ✔

 **SUCCESS**

Like I said, when you can't even turn in a test, you know it butts in more than its supposed to.

 _Shichi, I'm sure the Panels will be useful eventually._ Despite that, the Voice sounded unsure. _I'm not unsure! It has its uses - while you were taking the test, I was figuring out how this thing works._

Before I could respond, though, another panel came up. When I read this panel, though, I became much happier.

 **Test Score: 100%**

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

 _Owww… you don't have to be so loud, Shichi._

One hundred percent! ONE HUNDRED PERCENT! I finally did it. Yes! I finally got a perfect score on a test!

 _That's great, Shichi. But now you have to get back to your seat - people are staring again._

It was true - my classmates were staring at me again. I've gotten used to it by now, but I'm still a spectacle to them. Either way, the Voice was right. It was time to get back into my seat. I quickly walked back to my seat, suppressing the skip in my step, and enthusiastically sat back down.

 _Now that you're calm, Shichi, I want to tell you some of the things I've figured out about these panels._

Oh, don't go ruining my mood. I was so happy right now.

 _Shichi, in case you're forgetting, the panels told you your grade. I think you should be thankful enough for that._

Yeah… well, I suppose I can be grateful for that.

 _No one is supposed to tell you whether you should be grateful or not, Shichi. You're supposed to figure that out on your own. But anyway, let me tell you what I've learned. I'll go over what we learned one by one._

 _Requests are things we have to do. They have to be asked by others - they only pop up when someone else asks or orders us to do something. The Requests popped up only when Kaa-chan or Miyazaki-sensei asked us to do things._

 _It tells us if it's timed or not, and then it tells us what we have to do, in the form of Objectives. If we need to do the Objective to fulfill the Quest, it's under Objectives, while if it's not absolutely necessary it's under Bonus Objectives._

 _If we do everything the Request tells us to do, we get what's next to Success. If we don't manage to do what the Request tells us to do, we get what's next to Failure instead._

… can you repeat that, but shorter this time?

… _Shichi… Fine. When we have to do something, a request comes up. We can't pick the Requests ourselves. We have to do Objectives, we don't have to do Bonus Objectives. If we do the Objectives, we get some good stuff, but if we don't we get bad stuff. Is that clear enough for you?_

Oh, okay then. But then what is REP?

 _I don't know._ The Voice sounded annoyed. _I am annoyed. You should listen to what I say - it could come in handy. Oh, and don't think in capital letters, it hurts my ears_

Okay, okay, full attention on you… Wait, you have ears?

 _Glad to hear it, and yes, I have ears, I think. Anyway, those words above people's heads tell us more stuff about them. Like with Watanabe-san and Miyazaki-san, it tells us what they are - a Gardener in Watanabe-san's case, a Primary School Teacher in Miyazaki-sensei's case. It also tells us their names, which can be helpful as I said earlier._

Oh. Well, that's nice.

I looked around at the rest of my classmates. Sure enough, they had words above their head as well. Their Lvs were somewhere in the range of 3 to 5, while their PWs were all 3. They all had the words **Primary School Student** , while their names differed between each person.

What are Lv and PW, and what does the color of the words mean?

 _I don't know that either. I'm only telling you what I've figured out from what I've seen, Shichi._

Gotcha. And what about Skills?

 _I still don't know what they do. There are more abbreviations than I can deal with, Shichi. I haven't managed to figure out what END, AGI, and DEX mean either._

Well, that sucks.

 _I know, Shichi. It's been difficult._

Nothing happened for the rest of the test. It was mostly other students just taking their tests and turning them into Miyazaki-sensei. Soon enough, the period ended, and the Japanese teacher, Fujimoto-sensei, came walking in. Fujimoto-sensei was looking a little pale today as well - that cold must really be getting around, huh. It's not flu season yet, too.

 _Shichi, look at the words above Fujimoto-sensei's head!_

Sure enough, there were words above Fujimoto-sensei's head as well, this time in indigo.

 **Lv 18**

 **Pregnant Woman**

 **Hanako Fujimoto**

 **PW - 5**

Looked normal enough, what are you…

.

.

.

.

.

"PREGNANT?!" I shouted incredulously.

As the Voice facepalmed in my mind (or its equivalent, it's a Voice you know), I realized that shouting that out was probably not the smartest thing to in the middle of the class.

 _Nooooo, shouting about how your teacher is pregnant in the middle of class is the absolute smartest thing you can do, Shichi._ The sarcasm was thick with this bite. _And it needs to be thicker before it settles into your head to think before you act._

Everybody turned their heads toward me and stared. I shrunk back, mortified. Oh no, oh no, oh no…

Fujimoto-sensei coughed, thankfully breaking everyone's stares. "Sawada-san, I'm sick, not pregnant."

I bowed my head down. "I apologize, Fujimoto-sensei. I don't know what just came over me."

Fujimoto-sensei gazed at me with a penetrating stare for a couple seconds. I got the feeling she was trying to read me like one of her favored books.

 _You called her pregnant, what did you think was going to happen, Shichi?_

She turned to her version of our textbook. "Class, open to page 31 of your textbook." There was a clattering of movement as everyone rushed to get their textbooks. "Since Sawada-san is so eager to speak today, we'll have him start us off. Begin."

I began reading our textbook. It was simple enough - reading is one of my stronger areas, after all. The small stutter I had in the beginning soon gave way, and I ended the reading off less embarrassed than before, thank Kami.

 **Skills Re-Obtained!**

 **Reading Lv(2/10) - 54%**

 **The ability to read written text**

 **Cost: N/A**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 **AB: (Lv)X to Reading Speed, (Lv)X to Reading Comprehension**

 **PB: +(Lv/2)P to INT**

 **Speaking Lv(4/10) - 72.4%**

 **The ability to speak out loud**

 **Cost: N/A**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 **AB: (Lv)X to Speaking Speed, (Lv)X to Speaking Fluency**

 **PB: +(Lv/2)P to CHA**

Of course, when I do anything the panels pop up.

 _Now there are even more acronyms. I wonder what INT and CHA are?_

I don't really care. This thing has done nothing but cause trouble for me so far.

 _You are really quick to forget that it told you the grade of the test._

It also told me that Fujimoto-sensei was pregnant, which I didn't need to know. It got me into trouble because of it, too.

 _You got yourself into trouble. You didn't need to shout out her pregnancy for the world to hear, Shichi._

Hmph…

The rest of the period was uneventful, with everyone reading a passage of the textbook. Once we had gotten a little farther into the textbook, Fujimoto-sensei assigned us a small two-paragraph essay, and then we were sent on our way for recess.

 **Request! [Write an Essay!]**

 **[Hanako Fujimoto] requests you to [Write an Essay!]**

 **Timed**

 **Objectives:**

 **1.)Write Essay**

 **Success: + 1 REP with [Hanako Fujimoto]**

 **Failure: - 1 REP with [Hanako Fujimoto]**

Ugh… another of these Requests.

 _Chin up, Shichi, it's not that bad. They disappear on their own._ There was a pause, as I stewed over these damned panels. _Say, Shichi, why do you think we didn't get a Request for reading the textbook?_

I don't know, and I don't care.

As we looked out across the school, we saw lots of different students. Some were older than me, some were younger, but while everyone had different names, they all mostly had the words of **Primary School Student** above their name, in various colors including red, yellow, green blue, and indigo. I also saw one orange one and two violet ones standing off by themselves.

 _Say, Shichi, what is above our name?_

… good question. I crane my neck up, trying to catch a glimpse of my title. Unfortunately, while I can see it I can't decipher what it says - looking at letters from below is a lot harder than you think.

 _Shichi, use a bathroom and look at yourself in the mirror._

Good idea. I quickly run to the bathroom and stand in front of the sink. There, on top of my head, were my green words.

 **Lv 7**

 **Gamer**

 **Shichi Sawada**

 **PW - 3**

Gamer… well, what was expecting, Supremely Awesome Mega-Lord?

 _I can tell you really wanted that name, Shichi. That and Robot Godzilla._

A boy can dream, can't he? Anyway, my level is as high as my senpai's - even higher than some of them. Any thoughts?

 _No idea, Shichi. Well, maybe the memories from Nick Neumann that gave you an edge during the test, but I really don't know._

During the next two periods (Social Studies and Phys Ed) the Game (as I had decided to call it) didn't appear as much. I didn't receive any requests during this time, probably because I didn't have any homework or tests or anything like that.

During Phys Ed, though, a couple of interesting things occurred. When we began to warm-up for the day by running around the track, the Voice began to notice something interesting.

 _Hey… Shichi…_

*huff* Yeah?

 _Why is your form getting… better?_

Huh?

Then something strange occurred.

 **Skill Level Up!**

 **Sprinting - 2 → 3**

...WHAT?!

Suddenly, I realized that my back was straighter and my legs covered more ground as I ran (bigger stride, my Neumann memories told me). With a start, I realized that _yes_ , I'm running better than I did before.

… _that's incredible, Shichi._

If you're confused as to why we were so amazed, think about it this way. If you do a thing over and over again over a long period of time continuously, you would eventually get exhausted and your performance would start to slip. And while my performance could still slip a little bit due to exhaustion, my overall Sprinting ability was growing just by running a little bit.

Before, in our class's little racing competition, I was competing for dead last with a couple of other kids. Now, I'm smack dab in the middle of the pack and everybody around me is staring at me like 'What are YOU doing here?!'.

At this point, I was asking the same question.

After our warm-up ended shortly afterward, we began a game of soccer. Once I kicked the ball for the first time, another panel popped up.

 **You've pushed your speed to the max: +1 AGI**

 **Skill Re-Obtained!**

 **Sports Lv(2/10) - 19.7%**

 **The ability to play a large variety of sports**

 **Cost: N/A**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 **AB: +(Lv)P to AGI, STR, DEX, END**

 **PB: +(Lv/2)P to AGI, STR, DEX, END**

… You know, I think I'm starting to become desensitized to these panels. This isn't as annoying as I thought it would be.

 _Glad to see you're being more tolerant now, Shichi_

Sure, sure… Hey, do you think I could get really good at sports really fast with the Game?

 _If it works for Sprinting, I don't see why it won't work for Sports._

Alright, athletic success - here I come!

Thirty minutes later, I realized that not all skills grew at the same rate.

To be frank, I still sucked at soccer.

Darn.

 _Nobody said it was going to be easy, Shichi_

The Game is supposed to make it easy, Voice. I'm already used to things taking a long time, but I thought the game was going to make it faster - it made it faster for Sprinting, that's for sure.

…

The Voice was silent for the time being, and I knew that I had won that round. That rarely happens, you know.

 _That's because I'm the smarter of us two._

Hey! Don't change the subject!

 _Anyway, it's time for lunch, and you're hungry, Shichi. You love Kaa-chan's bentos, so go for it._

Lovely.

* * *

After gorging myself on Kaa-chan's luxurious bentos in the classroom and a relatively boring recess, we cleaned the hallways and classrooms, which was also really boring, and then waited for the next period, which was Japanese again. Fujimoto-sensei took mercy on us and decided to let us use the time to work on our essay, which I was grateful for - more time to play video games, after all.

 _Shichi..._

Halfway through the essay, another panel opened in front of my eyes. I didn't react as much as before, though - I'm getting used to it.

 **You've gained fine motor control: +1 DEX**

 **Skill Level Up!**

 **Penmanship - 3 → 4**

So Penmanship was another skill that grew fast, then. Great to hear. Just to be sure, though, I looked at the overall quality of my writing across my essay.

 _Yeah, Shichi, it looks like over time your writing abilities grew. Your handwriting looks better already._

I used my new Skill in Penmanship to quickly finish the essay. Then, with roughly a minute left on the clock until the new period, I turned in the essay to Fujimoto-sensei with a flourish.

 **Objective 1 - Cleared!**

 **Request Complete! [Write an Essay!]**

 **[Hanako Fujimoto] requests you to [Write an Essay]**

 **Timed**

 **Objectives:**

 **1.)Write Essay -** ✔

 **SUCCESS**

Fujimoto-sensei turned to me, her eyebrow raised. Usually, when she gave us these periods to work on these essays, only the smart students managed to finish the work before the period ended. I was never one of the smart students…

...UNTIL NOW! MUAHAHAHA

 _Shichi, stop._

NEVER!

 _...Ugh._

The next period we had music - and thankfully, no panels popped open during the class, which was good - I was getting tired of seeing the Game pop up every time I wanted to blow my nose. After Music, though, I got another panel.

 **Skill Re-Obtained!**

 **Music (Instruments) Lv(1/10) - 43.8%**

 **The ability to play a large variety of musical instruments**

 **Cost: N/A**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 **AB: +(Lv)P to DEX**

 **PB: +(Lv/2)P to DEX**

… You know, my hate for the game is turning into apathy - as long as it doesn't pop up that often, I can tolerate it.

 _That's good to hear, Shichi_

As the second class meeting of the day went on, I mused about the Game and its intricacies. Maybe the voice is right, and I've been too judgmental with this Game. I like video games - in fact, I spend most of my free time playing them.

 _Oh, by the way, you shouldn't be playing games that much, either._

Shush. Now, where was I - oh, yeah. The Game is different from normal video games, though. You have to actually do stuff, instead of pressing buttons so the game does the work for you. It's painful and annoying…

...yet I'm getting used to it, for some reason.

 _Shichi, the class meeting is over…_

Yeah, I can get used to this. Even the Game is the most annoying thing in the world and should go die in a hole, I can get used to it.

 _Shichi, look in front of you!_

What…?

 **M.A.D.**

A large red panel appeared in front of my face, obscuring my view of the blackboard. The panel, for some reason, had the English letters M, A, and D on it (thank you Neumann memories).

 _Shichi, what is this?_

If you can look in my head, you know that I don't know!

 _Oh, right…_

The M.A.D. panel remained fixed in place, not dismissing itself like the others did. I wondered if the Game was broken - I hope not, though. That would be REALLY BAD.

Then another panel appeared.

 **M.A.D.**

Another one?

Then a third,

 **M.A.D.**

And a fourth,

 **M.A.D.**

And a fifth.

 **M.A.D.**

Then a sixth… and a seventh… an eighth.

Soon, the M.A.D. panels began swarming everything. They locked to each other, edge-to-edge, blocking my view of… well, everything. I twisted my head to look behind, and they were there as well.

Thanks to my Neumann memories, I know what M, A, and D spell in English.

Mad.

 _Shichi… apologize… NOW!_

Game, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'M SORRY!

The panels kept on propagating, their numbers ever increasing in size.

Then it stopped…

And began to reverse.

 _Yes, Shichi! We're safe!_ The voice's tone became much, much sterner. _NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!_

Right - don't insult something that has complete control over you.

The panels were dismissing themselves, one by one. Soon enough, they had all disappeared, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

For all of two seconds.

Then I realized that something was wrong - the classroom was tinted in a strange green color. It looked nice, I will admit, but it looked incredibly strange. But that wasn't it, though - not all of it, at least. The air was thick with a strange heaviness, as if I was in a cloud of fog I couldn't see.

The Game did something… but what?

 _Shichi, look out the window!_

Obediently, I turned around to see what the Voice had seen outside. I then recoiled in surprise.

The sky outside wasn't a shade of blue, black, or grey like it usually is - instead, it was a fluorescent green. I felt like I was on an alien planet.

 _Shichi, what are we supposed to do? The Game did this, not me or you. How do we fix this?_

Uh… let's ask?

… _worth a shot._

*Cough**Cough* Uh, hey, Game. Can you make everything back to normal again, please?

A panel appeared in front of me.

 **The warp is currently at the: School Gate**

Well, that was unsurprisingly unhelpful, What did I expect from the Ga-

 _Shichi, NO! Don't insult the Game again - that's what got us into this mess in the first place._

Right, right… I still think that the Game is a stu-

 _NO, Shichi! Just focus on getting to the School Gate_

Fine. I'm going to swear off video games forever because of this, you know.

 _That's a lie, Shichi - we both know that._

… worth a shot.

 _That's my line!_

I quickly ran out of the empty classroom door, stepping over the threshold door. I intend to get this over with as soon as possible - I'm too tired to do any more than just get home.

Then I heard a loud gong.

 **SHOWTIME!**

The classroom door slammed shut behind me, and with a start, I realized that I might not be safe just yet.

"EAGHHHH!"

Covering my ears, I recoiled. What made that awful sound? I quickly turned my head to the direction where the sound had come from. Once I did, though, I wish I didn't.

Shambling from the hallway to my left was a strange thing. At first, it looked sort of like a human. It walked on two legs like a human, and it had some of its features. However, looking at it more closely, I realized that you would have to be blind to consider this a human( _Shichi..._ ). While, from a distance, this thing would look normal, the monster (because there is no other word to describe it) had pale and shiny skin, eyes shut tight( _Shichi..._ ). It walked forward toward me with a hunched back, its feet looking like they were moving of their own accord. Looking at them a little closer, you could see that the "pale and shiny skin" I had described earlier was actually a collection of spikes that decorated the body - the monster had no point where it was not covered by spikes( _SHICHI..._ ). Above its head rested the following words in grey.

 **ENEMY COMBATANT**

 **Somnhari**

 **Unnamed**

 **PW - 5**

 _Shichi, RUN!_

I then realized how close the monster was to me - it, through its shambling had approached me, and now had its arms stretched out wide as if to hug me (more likely to stop me from escaping).

" _Hug me", really, Shichi? RUN!_

So, naturally, I ran the other way, screaming at the top of my lungs. I am a 9-year old, thank you very much, not a warrior.

I ran through the hallways until I couldn't breathe anymore. I stopped to catch my breath because running so much was exhausting. Judging from the maneuvers I made, I'm around a minute away from the School Gate. As long as I can get there, I'm home safe. I don't want to encounter that thing again.

 _I'm pretty sure that thing was called a Somnhari, Shichi, judging by the words above its head._

I'm never going to see it again, so I don't care.

Of course, I just _had_ to be proven wrong, and in the worst way possible too. The Somnhari from before had finally caught up with me - _and it now had friends._

 _Run, Shichi!_

So I ran away again, this time making sure I was heading to the School Gate - if there's two, there might be three or four or five of these things. I need to get out of here as fast as possible.

However, it couldn't be easy - it couldn't ever be easy for me, you know.

 _Just because things have been gone off the rails doesn't mean everything has to be hard, Shichi_

More of the Somnharis came running after me, flooding out of the doors more and more the closer I got to the School Gate - soon enough, I had a veritable mob coming after me. I now know what the survivors in Zombie movies feel like…

Wait, "Somnhari"... "Zombie"

 _You have got to be kidding me… You're thinking about this NOW!? RUN!_

Oh, Right.

Finally, I reached the school's entrance, a large mob of Somnharis hot on my tail. I had done it - just ten meters or so more, and then I can escape.

I opened the door to the school in triumph - and then doom crashed upon me like a tidal wave.

There were Somnharis outside as well. A solid line of them stretched the span of the walkway. Past them, I could see what looked like a glowing blue portal in the direct middle of the School Gate.

 _Oh no…_

At this point, everything caught up with me. The stress, the sleeplessness, the pain, the anger everything. It all caught up to me in a single blow, and I found myself paralyzed.

Then the mob caught up to me and dragged me back inside the school. I could no longer resist - I had used up all of my energy trying to run today, to run and run and run and run and run and run and run and run. Running toward something, and running away from something. All I did was run. I can't do that anymore. I'm just… too tired.

The mob's spikes dug into me

 **Ding! -4 HP**

 **Ding! -4 HP**

 **Ding! -4 HP**

Every second I felt myself getting weaker, as the wounds I was attaining from simply being handled by the Somnharis compounded.

 _Shichi… help…_ the Voice's speech became fainter and fainter in my mind.

I'm sorry. I can't help you anymore.

The Voice's presence was fading from my mind, which felt wrong to me - after all of these years of being together, the Voice disappearing felt unnatural.

I gave out one last sigh, my HP draining from me by the second as the spiked Somnharis held me tight, as I accepted death. I'm sorry, Kaa-chan, Aniki…

 _...help…_

I can't.

I can't

Ican'tIcan'tIcan'tIcan'tIcan'tICAN'TICAN'TICAN'TICAN'TICAN'T!

I… I'm sorry.

I can't do anything.

I'm about to die…

And then a voice, from deep within me, spoke. It wasn't the Voice, for I could barely feel their presence now. Instead, it was something different.

 _Shichi… you have Power within you… bring it out… with your Dying Will_!

And then something broke inside me, as some strange power grew inside my veins, burning my insides. At the same time, I felt a dam of mental energy I didn't know I had broken in my mind.

The Voice's power returned full force, and then grew stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger than it had ever been before, until…

 _SYMPATHY!_

Everything exploded.

Crackling green fire exploded from my every pore as a wave of force pushed the Somnharis far, far away from me. I felt my stomach bubbling and roiling, though paid it no heed as I directed the strange force I had power over to ram itself into the mob that had previously been on the verge of killing me.

The spikes imploded, driving themselves deep into the Somnharis as the green fire that had exploded from me ran around, consuming everything in its path.

Soon, the Somnharis were nothing but a pile of smoking ash.

"Shichi...I'm… on the outside?" Was that the Voice? It sounded like the Voice, but it came from my ears, not my head like it usually does.

"Shichi, look at your belly" I acquie- WHAT?

Poking out of my torn uniform was a strange cat-lookalike of a creature. On its head was a green jewel with what looked like a magnifying glass on it. It had large indigo eyes and a small green triangular nose, with three green whisker-like things on the side of its head and a Z-shaped ponytail… antenna… thing.

"Shichi, I can still read your thoughts, by the way. Your descriptive skills need work."

Are you the Voice?

"Yes, Shichi." The Voice sounded faintly amused

...all right, all right. Are you okay?

"I'm fine Shichi. I feel better than ever actually."

Well, that's great to hear. I looked over at the carnage I had wreaked. Wow… I did this… cool.

"Shichi, now you can escape!" The Voice- who was no longer just a voice- reminded me.

Right.

I walked toward the School Gate. The Somnharis that were previously blocking my way had been blown away by the wave of force I had exerted.

I slowly walked over to the School Gate and stepped into the portal.

 **M.A.D. - Complete!**

The sky returned back to its natural blue state, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

 **Skills Obtained!**

 **Observe Lv(1/50) - 0%**

 **The ability to see look at things and see the underlying truth**

 **Cost: N/A**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 **AB: Description of Object Observed**

 **PB: +(Lv)P to PER,**

 **Synaptic Resonance Lv(1/10) - 0%**

 **The ability to link minds with a Monitalien and perform powerful combination attacks**

 **Cost: 10% of Current MP**

 **Cooldown: 1 hour**

 **AB: Ability Fusion**

 **PB: +(Lv)P to SYM**

 **Synaptic Bond Lv(8/10) - 42%**

 **The ability to have a link with a Monitalien and to strengthen Synaptic Resonance**

 **Cost: N/A**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 **AB: Synaptic Resonance's power increases by (Lv)X**

 **PB: Represents REP, +100 REP for every Lv**

 **Flame Expulsion Lv(1/10) - 13.6%**

 **The ability to release Flames from various parts of your body**

 **Cost: FP Variable on the amount of flame expelled (MAX: 100)**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 **AB: Ability to summon flames**

 **PB: +(Lv/2)P to EFF**

 **Mental Energy Manipulation Lv(1/10) - 10.7%**

 **The ability to manipulate the energy of the mind**

 **Cost: Depends on use**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 **AB: Ability to use mental energy (MP), Progress Multiplier with [Mental] Skills: (Lv)X**

 **PB: +(Lv/2)P to INT, WIS**

 **Psychokinesis Lv(1/10) - 23.6%**

 **The ability to manipulate objects with your mind**

 **Cost: (Newtons of force exerted/(Lv))*2**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 **AB: Ability move things around with your mind**

 **PB: +(Lv/2)P to INT, WIS**

I felt no annoyance, just exhaustion.

"Shichi, you should get home." The head that seemed to belong to the Voice then disappeared back into thin air.

 _I'll be with you the whole way._

I smiled, and then, with slow and heavy steps, walked home.


	2. A Dangerous Situation

I smiled, and then, with slow and heavy steps, walked home.

The road home was quiet, for some reason. Usually, there is at least someone in the streets of Namimori, but this time there was nobody as if I randomly got stuck in a ghost town. Of course, I knew that wasn't true - there were lights on in the houses, and I could hear the shouts of people in their houses, screaming over a TV remote or something like that.

.

.

.

.

.

You know, now that I'm thinking about it, where is the Voice? The one that apparently wasn't just a voice, but a strange cat thing with a jewel in its forehead. Usually, the Voice would talk to me on long roads home like this one, and because I had nothing else to do I would usually respond. But now, I can't hear him. He's definitely in me, I can feel that, but it sounds like he can't talk for some reason.

So much for him "being with me the whole way".

Somehow, though, I can't feel but feel like he didn't lie to me - it feels like he _can't talk_ , not _won't talk_. Either way, the road home is usually much more exciting and action-packed than it is now, with weirdos running in the street every so often (it's weird, but compared to my home in America as Nick Neumann, Namimori is both wilder and tamer - a paradox, if you want to think of it that way).

Soon I step up to the front of our suburban house, the sun in the sky washing in a beautiful rainbow of colors. For some strange reason, I feel nervous. I take a couple of deep breaths, but I can't get the nervous feeling out of my head for some reason. I give off a couple of shudders. If the Voice was here, he would know what to do - his advice, if annoying at times, is usually useful.

With small and slow steps, I walk into my home.

When I open the front door, the Game doesn't really signify anything. No pop-ups, no panels or windows, nothing.

I kick off my shoes, put them in the shoe rack, and walk toward the kitchen. Inside Kaa-chan was humming a cheerful and dainty tune as she stirred some curry in a pot. She looked so happy, so peaceful…

I don't know how long I stood like that, just staring at Kaa-chan as she continued making tonight's dinner. Above her head were green words, just like mine:

 **Lv 25**

 **Content Housewife**

 **Nana Sawada**

 **PW - 5**

You know, the Gamer is starting to make me feel really, really sick. I was content having a normal life - popularity is nice, yeah, and I wish I could supplement it because of my lack of it, but really, nothing particularly bad was going on in my life.

I would graduate from high school in five to ten years, maybe go to college if my grades were high enough, go to college. I would get a job at one of the big companies and I, like everyone else, would attempt to claw my way to a promotion so I could be able to afford nice things - that's just how the way the world works.

The Game threw me into a situation where I had to fight for my life from Somnharis, whatever they were, and I only just barely managed to save myself from them. In the meantime, I managed to activate supernatural powers, since people don't typically save themselves from eldritch monsters with a shockwave, or burn them alight with green fire… that was also like electricity.

With the Game, I never had a chance at a normal life.

Kaa-chan had continued humming and started working on another part of tonight's dinner. She looked so peaceful, so serene. Aside from the words on top of her head, she was completely detached from the Game - and I envy her for that.

I let out a great big sigh.

Kaa-chan turned around, her face beaming as she held her favorite ladle within her grasp. "Shichi, you're ba-" Her face turned ashen gray, and her eyes bugged out. I spent a brief second wondering why she seemed so shocked.

Then she screamed.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!" Her voice tore through my head like a bullet, leaving me dazed and scared. I could barely feel my legs as she collapsed to the floor like a puppet that had lost its strings.

There was a quick succession of thumps from upstairs, followed by a bump-bump-bump down the stairs like I'm so used to - it was Aniki, most likely. Strange - I haven't seen him all day, and I've nearly forgotten about him completely.

*huff**huff* Aniki's breathing sounded incredibly hard and arduous as he came crawling into the kitchen, his face red as a cherry and eyes bulging out. Above his head, like everyone else, were words, except his were written in that rare amber-like orange

 **Lv 5**

 **Vongola Descendant**

 **Tsunayoshi Sawada**

 **PW - 4**

"Shichi… what… what HAPPENED?" While saying the last word, he looked at me and scrambled backward, his face panicked. At this point, I had to know what was so scary about my sight, so I made a foolproof excuse ("Got to go, bye!"), and quickly dashed off to the bathroom to get a good look at myself. I quickly stepped up to the sink and took a good look at myself.

To put in bluntly, I looked like a wreck - actually, no, I didn't look like a wreck, I looked like a zombie. My eyes were bloodshot for some reason, my face was pale and clammy, my hair, which usually simply lay down on my head like Kaa-chan's and unlike Aniki's, was now stringy and damp, and my uniform was riddled with punctures, blood splattered all over them.

All in all, I wouldn't look out of place on a George Romero film (when I watched one of them as Nick Neumann, I had nightmares for weeks). It's no surprise as to why Kaa-chan and Aniki had such awful reactions. Still, some part of me deep within my soul felt hurt and attacked by their reactions.

At this point, I noticed the emerald words above my head. Before, I had an Lv of 7 and a PW of 3. Now, though, the numbers had changed.

 **Lv 8**

 **Gamer**

 **Shichi Sawada**

 **PW - 5**

I still have no idea what Lv and PW mean, and while I have a guess for Lv (Level - I remember seeing it earlier today and it has stuck in my mind for some reason), PW is still a mystery to me.

Suddenly, there was a loud crash and smoke began to pour into the room at an incredibly fast rate. I coughed and sputtered as a strange yellow light began to spill into the room. Suddenly, I saw a darkening silhouette in the doorway. The silhouette, for some reason, looked incredibly infantile, a little under one-and-a-half feet tall. The smoke began to clear little by little, and I slowly started to make out the silhouette.

 **SHOWTIME!**

The infant, which was what the silhouette appeared to be after the smoke cleared, looked strangely like a businessman, wearing a designer suit, tie, etc. On the infant's head was a fedora with a horizontal orange stripe. The baby businessman was pointing a green and black gun at me, the gun's muzzle shining in the kitchen and bathroom's dim light. The room was silent for a time, and I could see Aniki crawl into view, looking absolutely terrified - not that I blame him.

Above the baby's head were the following terrifying yellow words:

 **ENEMY COMBATANT**

 **Lv 50**

 **Sun Arcobaleno**

 **Reborn**

 **PW - 75**

The Lv is 50? THE PW IS 75? If there is anything I've learned from the Game so far, it's that higher numbers mean more… power.

So THAT'S what PW means! Power! Of course!

… This means that Reborn, if that's his name, is roughly five times stronger than Kaa-chan… as an infant… and he has a gun…

...Uh oh...

"... Ciaossu." With that strange greeting, the baby cocks the gun at me. "Who are you?"

…****

What do I do? This Reborn baby is three seconds away from killing me and I have no idea what to do. Aniki is petrified and is going to be effectively useless, so I can't count on him, not like I could ever count on him in the first place, that is.

Think, think, think...

What would be the Voice's view on this situation?

 _Say Hi!_

Yeah, that's what the Voice would say - greet the infant, and politely ask that the infant doesn't kill me.

Well, it's better than nothing, I guess.

"...um… hello?" I start off, incredibly weak in my voice. "My name is...uh… Shichi Sawada… who are you?" I finish lamely.

The infant pulls down his hat to cover his eyes "My name is Reborn" He lets that hang in the air for the moment, to dramatic effect. Of course, it's a little diluted on me given that I already knew his name, but it was still epic.

Reborn, however, wasn't done "You, however, aren't Shichi." Reborn makes full eye-contact, intimidating me extremely. "Now fess up. Who are you really?" All of a sudden, I felt like I needed to dodge to the right, and that I would be injured if I didn't.

So I dodged, and not a moment too soon, as soon enough a bullet hole appeared in the bathroom wall where my left arm used to be. Aniki screamed (or shrieked, it's the same thing concerning Aniki), and I pissed myself - I couldn't even see Reborn aim for my arm, the gun seemed to instantaneously switch from being pointed at my head to being pointed at my arm. If I hadn't dodged like I had, I would be in serious trouble.

Reborn cocked the gun again and pointed it at my forehead, his eyes narrowing dramatically. All of the sudden, dying became very, very real again.

"... alright, _Shichi_." My name was spoken in a vitriolic tone. " Explain to me this. Why is your aura so powerful for a boy who has never thrown a punch in his life."

Both Aniki and I adopted looks of confusion on our faces, because _aura_? What on earth is _aura_?

Luckily, I didn't have to ask the question, because it seemed Aniki was just as clueless as I was in this case.

"Aura? Reborn, what do you mean?" Aniki asked in his annoyingly high pitched voice.

Reborn tsked. "Dame-Tsuna, have you never watched any TV shows?"

Aniki blushed, and I decided to fill in for him "Aniki loves mecha shows - he's a huge fan of Gundam"

Reborn smirked, and somehow I felt sorry for Aniki. "So neither of you have heard of Aura, then." While saying "Neither of you" Reborn looked at me and gave me a mocking look - he still thought I was an impostor or something.

Reborn then continued to explain. "Auras are the physical manifestations of spiritual energy. It's very rare that people are able to see them, but being able to see auras allows you to gauge a number of things, from a person's spiritual purity to their worldly experience and intelligence."

Reborn smirked again. "I, of course, have the ability to see these auras - as is expected from someone such as myself." The smirk fell away again to a deadly stare, and Reborn cocked the gun at me again. I felt my apprehension rise again. "While Dame-Tsuna's aura is small and pure, your aura, _Shichi_ , is neither of those things - it is many times larger than anyone your ages' aura has any right to be, and is dark in certain areas."

Aniki began to look a little scared as well, and I couldn't blame him - this aura thing was beginning to drive me insane. Reborn continued. "To top it all off, you have holes in your body - bullet, weapon-induced, it doesn't matter. To be able to move, to even _think_ , should be impossible for someone your age with those kinds of injuries." I felt the urge to dodge again, only this time to the left instead of the right. Given that the last time this happened I was almost shot, you bet I'm going to dodge again.

I dodge again, and another bullet hole appears where my right arm was, followed by another deafening crack. Smoke begins to rise from Reborn's gun as Aniki faints. Reborn ignores Aniki's fainting and continues.

"You have insane dodging talents and you even know what Dame-Tsuna's favorite TV show is." Reborn smiled. "Whoever you are, you have an incredible talent for infiltration. You didn't even look confused just now when I was talking in English. I must commend you on that and must say that if it wasn't for your aura, which nobody can hide, you would have even fooled me. I'll ask you one more time".

Reborn jumped high in the air, and I spared a single second wondering how an infant was able to jump in the air so high before reborn knocked me onto the ground. A second later, I was trapped on the ground of the bathroom with Reborn standing directly on top of me.

 **DING! - 3 HP**

Reborn cocked the gun again and pointed the gun at my head again. I had a feeling he wouldn't aim at my arms anymore, and that I wouldn't be able to dodge like I have been for the past ten minutes. "Who are you, who is your family, and what have you done with Shichi Sawada? You have ten seconds" Reborn began counting down. "Ten…"

OH****OH****OH****OH****OH****OH****OH****!

WHAT AM I GOING TO DO? Nothing I say will protect me, nothing at all. Aniki and Kaa-chan are unconscious, I look incredibly suspicious, and Reborn is about to shoot me.

"Nine…"

How am I going to escape from this? Come on, somebody, anybody, give me SOMETHING.

"Eight…"

Voice, are you there? CAN YOU PLEASE HELP ME!?

… there was no response.

"Seven…"

Neumann memories, come on, don't fail me… no, there's nothing.

"Six…"

Game… GAME…?

"Five…"

COME ON GAME, SAVE ME! YOU WERE SO EAGER TO THROW ME TO THE SOMNHARIS BEFORE, YET YOU WON'T LIFT A FINGER TO SAVE ME!

"Four…"

YOU AWFUL, AWFUL GAME! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!

 **M.A.D.**

"Three…"

Then I realized what I had been doing for the past two seconds, and paled.

More and more of the M.A.D. panels began to flood into view.

"Two…"

Reborn's tight grip on the trigger tightened even further, and I realized that I was seconds away from death.

The M.A.D. panels had at this point completely covered everything, and I didn't know how I really felt about that.

"One…"

The panels began to recede, first slowly, then quickly.

"Zero."

I closed my eyes, waiting for the crack of the gun and my second death…

… that for some reason was taking a very, very long time.

I opened my eyes and found that Reborn had gotten off of me, and was looking outside of the bathroom. Kaa-chan and Aniki were gone, and I realized that the sky was the fluorescent green again - we were back in the Somnhari's world.

I gingerly picked myself up, feeling a couple of aches from earlier that day as well as the ones I had gotten when Reborn had knocked me down to the floor. Reborn, however, must have heard me, because the quickly turned around and pointed his gun at me again.

" _What did you do_?" Reborn bit out venomously, his eyes like the pits of darkness in a chasm.

I quickly backtracked until I hit a wall. My voice had caught in my throat, so I couldn't answer him - not that I would be able to if I was able to speak, anyway. I had no explanation beyond "I pissed off the Game," and I don't think that really would have satisfied Reborn.

Of course, I didn't really have much of a choice in the end, because Reborn, tired of waiting, jumped up like he did to knock me down and grabbed the lapel of my uniform. Then, in an incredible bit of finesse for literally everybody on Earth, Reborn jumped off of the wall he rested on while holding on to my lapel and dragged me with him, exposing me to the world.

I wasn't able to offer any sort of resistance as he brought me into the green light of the M.A.D. world.

Once we were in the kitchen, Reborn dropped me on to the side of the counter and held his hands to my throat. I realized that he was trying a new tactic, as shooting me didn't work apparently.

Reborn's hands rested on my throat as he spoke out again, in a terribly angered voice " _Where. Are. We._ " He seemed very, very close to killing me, so I had no choice but to answer.

"Uh… I don't really know what this place is called… I just know that it's dangerous." I tried to answer. Reborn considered the answer for a second, and I felt a brief glimmer of hope.

"How do we get out?" Reborn asked, his voice slightly less acidic.

That was a little less clear. Hopefully, though, the Game will tell me where to get out like it did before. Otherwise…

"Wait a second, Reborn, let me think…" Here goes nothing.

Game, how do I get out of here?

A panel appeared in front of me like it had earlier today at the school.

 **The warp is currently at the: School Gate**

My jaw dropped. You have _got_ to be kidding me - all the way back at school?

I gulped. "The...uh… way to get out is at Namimori Primary School, Reborn"

Reborn considered what I had said for another second. I desperately wished that he would believe me because if he didn't I would die, and then I would either reincarnate or die for real, and I don't want to risk either of those things.

Then, for some strange reason, he jumped on my shoulder, unbalancing me a little bit.

"Okay, then, _Shichi_. Lead the way, then." Reborn said derisively.

"A-Alright." So off we went, on our merry way to Namimori Primary School.

The outside street was as empty as it was before, only this time inside of happy and joyful sounds in the houses there was nothing but an eerie silence and an occasional moan or groan.

Oh no… what if there are more Somnharis… what if I have to face Somnharis _and_ Reborn.

.

.

.

.

.

Best not dwell on it for now. Let's just hope I don't have to actually face both of them. I probably won't survive if I do have to face them.

Oh, I wish the Voice were here - he makes things a little bit easier to deal with anyway.

So it went, me running as fast as I could toward Namimori Primary with a baby on my shoulder in a post-apocalyptic Namimori… did I mention that it still hasn't been a full day since I've had my powers yet?

I finally got to a four-way intersection when trouble first struck.

Three Somnharis came through each of the three directions, surrounding me in every direction except my backside. Reborn's grip on me tightened a little bit.

 **SHOWTIME!**

" _What are those_?" He asked in his usual venomous tone - at least, I think it's his usual tone, I've met him only an hour ago, after all.

I decided that honesty was the best policy because somehow I felt like the baby could tell if I was lying or not.

"These monsters are called Somnharis, Reborn. They're like zombies but with spikes all over them."

The Somnharis stumbled closer.

"Uh, Reborn, a little help?"

Reborn tightened his fit even more, then relaxed it. He then hopped off me and hopped on the wall separating one of Namimori's resident's homes from the main street

"No, I think you have this. I don't want to waste a bullet saving you, after all."

You have _got_ to be kiddi- oh, right, he still thought I was impersonating myself. Funny how you can forget that sort of thing in the middle of your second Somnhari Apocalypse.

The Somnharis came even closer to us (they were moving much more slowly than they did last time for some reason). I felt a strong sense of déjà vu as the Somnharis lumbered closer. Then I remembered that I have been in this situation before - when I was getting about of my first M.A.D. Back then, I used some sort of magic power to blow the Somnharis away and drive the spikes on them back into themselves as well as light them on fire with some green flame.

I took a couple of steps back to give myself a little bit of breathing room because the Somnharis were a little too close for comfort. If I still had control over those powers, I could attack the Somnharis again and kill them, but I'm pretty sure that was a one-time thing, though. I probably couldn't replicate it…

… could I?

I did gain a skill for it, but I don't know how to activate skills - they usually just grew on their own. Maybe if I shouted it, it would work.

"Psychokinesis!"I shouted…

...No, there was nothing. The Somnharis were nearly on me, but I knew that calling out for help wasn't going to get a response from anyone but Reborn, and that wasn't going to get me anything other than a scoff and an insult, probably.

Let's see now… maybe if I just imagine pushing them away, they would be pushed away.

Come on… Push…

Then I realized that through all of my thinking, the Somnharis were getting closer and closer and that they were nearly a foot away from me now. I quickly fell on my butt and scuttled away from them as fast possible.

The Somnharis surrounded me, and put their hands down on me. I realized that I might not get another "happy ending" like I had before.

If I don't do anything right now, I'm going to die…

Then, just like a couple of hours earlier, my powers surfaced. The Somnharis were blown away, and green fire began to flicker around me, this time much weaker, though - it was nowhere near the same level of strength it was when I was fighting the Somnharis the first time around. My Psychokinesis was as strong as it was before, though.

This time, I was much more in control of myself than I was before, and I could feel both powers swirling in me, the green flame around my body while the Psychokinetic power was in my head, primarily.

Reborn frowned. For some reason, I felt he wanted a different ending to that story - just a thought. Then he smiled, which was the first time I ever saw the expression on his face, and I wished I never saw it in the first place. It looked like he was ready to murder me - that was the feeling I got from him. He looked sinister with that smile, with what looked like a purplish black haze surrounding him and a deep and dark look in his infantile eyes…

.

.

.

.

.

… Hold on, what is that?

A visible black haze began to surround Reborn, cloaking part of his suit and making him somehow even more ominous than before. It then occurred to me, for the first time, that with every action I did, that every time I opened my mouth, I pissed off someone who had soiled his babyish hands in the blood of his enemies.

The only reason he's keeping me alive is because I have some unknown use to him - he's only a second away from killing me.

*Gulp* M-Maybe I should keep going.

Of course, the Somnharis either weren't as weak as the ones I first met, or I just didn't kill them properly. Either way, they had slowly gotten back up and were crawling back toward me with what I felt was vengeance. They reached toward me with their arms and began to fire what looked like small metal spikes at me. The spikes didn't look that fast, but they were still launched at me. I felt the strange urge I felt when dodging Reborn's bullets and quickly moved out of the way of the spikes.

The Somnharis didn't give up, though, and they simply moved their arms again in my direction. I realized that I didn't have a way to attack them - which meant the Somnharis and I were playing a game of cat and mouse, where I was the hopeless mouse.

The thing is, I can't give up, though… After what happened earlier today at the school grounds, I realized I didn't want to die. When I was almost ready to accept my death, a dormant fire within me awakened these strange powers, and I was able to fight them off. I realized I valued my life - and it only appeared that way when I was ready to do anything to protect it.

Protection…

Protection…

The crackling green fire that was coursing throughout my body felt a spike at that, and I realized what drove the power of green flame - the feeling of protection, if not for others than feelings of self-protection…

The Somnharis kept firing their spiky shots at me while I was thinking, my body almost automatically dodging in response to the pathetically slow attacks. Reborn was off frowning ominously on his stone wall, the scowl deepening each time he saw me dodge one of the attacks.

Let's see… using this green flame, I managed to blast the Somnharis to dust last time… if I can manage that feat again…

' _Protection, Protection, Protection_ ', I chanted in my head like a mantra, while thinking of positive and nice thoughts - that usually does the trick when fighting demons or monsters in the movies, right. It worked for me, thankfully, and I managed to bring the green flame crackling inside my skin to its top. With a shout - that's what all the cool anime guys do - I release it. It slowly travels to the Somnharis as green electricity, and I briefly wonder if the Somnharis are going to make any attempt to dodge the flames I summoned. I guess the Somnharis don't know how to run, though, as they just stand there and take the flames head-on.

As they burn to death in front of me, I clap for the nice effort they tried to kill me with and casually wished them better luck next time.

I love rubbing salt in a wound, it's so much fun.

 **You pushed your brain to the max: +1 INT**

 **You pushed yourself to try harder than ever before: +1 EFF**

Good, more of whatever INT and EFF are… I'm assuming they're good.

Reborn jumped off the wall, his smirk firmly affixed to his face. He gestured toward the four-way intersection. "Continue leading the way, _Shichi_. I'm getting bored." He jumped up onto my shoulder again. He pointed forward. "Onward."

So I quickly scampered off - almost tripping over myself in fright of Reborn's potential vengeance.

On the way to the school, we encountered several more Somnharis. I quickly dealt with them using the flames, which I had a much greater margin of control over now that I knew how to bring them up and use them.

Reborn smiled darkly in the fluorescent green light of the sky, his aura darkening every time I managed to kill another Somnhari, and I began to slowly panic, because either way, I was walking to my doom at the end of this little "trip".

Eventually, we made our way to Namimori Primary School, and lo and behold, there at the School Gate was the same blue portal there was earlier today. Reborn hopped off me, digging into my shoulder blades with his fancy shoes while he did so. I winced and he smiled in response.

This is where he's going to kill me, then…

Reborn slowly walked toward the portal, his shoes clacking ominously on the pavement as he did so. Once he was only a foot or so away from the portal, Reborn quickly twisted around, pointed his gun at me, the gun as green as the sky above.

"Arrivederci, Shichi."

 _BOOM_

What felt like an earthquake began to rock the ground under our feet. Reborn and I began to lose our balance - well, only I lost my balance, but still, it's nice to think Reborn as not omnipotent.

As the ground shook violently, the blue portal winked shut. I didn't notice, though, as I was too busy trying to keep my balance as the earthquake continued.

I then felt the urge to dodge, so I did, and Reborn fired a bullet at me. Luckily his aim was a little off, or there would have been no chance of me dodging that. Smoke began to rise from Reborn's gun, and he cocked his gun again for another shot.

Not going to stick around, though!

I used that strange Psychokinesis power to push myself away. It won't do very much considering how far a bullet can travel, but I still think that it's better than sticking around and waiting for Reborn to shoot me.

Fortunately, Reborn seems preoccupied with something, and I wonder what it is - or at least, I did, until the wall around the school exploded and I realized that the Somnharis aren't the only kind of monster the M.A.D. can create.

 **SHOWTIME!**

As the walls exploded, strange creatures began to pour out. They looked similar to the Somnharis, in the fact that they had spikes all over them, except they looked much thinner than the Somnharis - while the Somnharis looked like they had relatively normal weight, these new monsters looked much thinner, and while the spikes over most of their body was smaller than the even spikes of the Somnhari, the spikes over the monsters palms, elbows, and knees were many times bigger than the Somnharis spikes. Their eyes were much bigger, red and filled with hostile malice. Above their heads rested the following words:

 **ENEMY COMBATANT**

 **Herehari**

 **Unnamed**

 **PW - 9**

 _Oh ****... Kaa-chan will be angry at me for using those words…_ I thought pathetically.

The Hereharis screeched at me and began running at me as fast as Kaa-chan would run toward me when I was lost in the store - many times faster than the Somnharis ran at me.

I prepared a large burst of flame to burn the Somnharis with, and when three of them came dangerously close, I released the flame in a fiery shockwave, burning the damned monsters alive. However, more of the Somnharis began to close in, seven of them left from the very beginning of the fight.

I released two more shockwaves, burning another three of them. When I faced the last two, however, I could feel the fire. I tried to feel the need for self-protection, but for some reason, it wasn't coming - I felt like I had somehow made peace even though I was fighting for my life.

As the Hereharis closed in, I wondered why I wasn't feeling anything - this seemed insane, I was trying to fight for my life, and I couldn't fight.

Suddenly there were five cracks of gunshots, blasting loudly in my eardrums. The Hereharis, who had been mere feet away from me at this point, suddenly fell down, lying prone on the floor, and I had the strangest feeling they were dead. I staggered, feeling a little off-put, and slowly turned around to see Reborn's gun smoking at its tip again. The portal, for some reason, had opened itself up again, and Reborn was gesturing toward it.

"Let's go, Shichi." He said, without any sarcasm or vitriol. He had a strangely unreadable look in his eye, and I usually counted myself on my ability to read people - it was one of the things I was usually successful at.

At this point, I had reached my set of crossroads. On one hand, I go with Reborn, and he will almost certainly kill me. On the other hand, I try to run away from Reborn, and he will almost certainly kill me.

My future's looking rather bright, you know. Can't wait to see what happens next.

Reborn, whose gun had been pointing at the corpse of the Hereharis, redirected his aim toward me. "Don't try to run away. I've decided that I want to talk to you - and you need to be alive for that. The longer we stay here, the more chances more of those monsters will come to attack us. They are a bother and I wish to have a …" he took a pause "... _discussion_ … with you." His eyes glinted a dark green. " _Let's go, Shichi._ "

I decided that going with Reborn would be the sensible option in this case. I guess it would make it easier on both of us, after all.

Reborn gestured first, his eyes filled with a black mirth. "After you, _Shichi_." His voice had a biting lilt in it, and the first true feelings of worry slowly began to surface. Well, too late to do anything about it now.

I stepped out into the portal, a part of me trying to find a way out of this, the rest of me accepting my fate.

 **M.A.D. - Complete!**

That didn't fill me with joy like it had last time. As I felt Reborn step out of the portal himself, I reconciled myself completely. I was prepared to die now - Kaa-chan will be disappointed, but there's nothing I can do.

"Shichi, turn around," Reborn ordered behind me, clearly miffed… which sounded wrong now that I thought about it.

… You know, even though this is probably going to lead to a slower death, I, somehow, feel like not doing what Reborn says - I really don't want to give him the satisfaction of beating me entirely. I will stand my ground, even though I really don't want to, because heck, I don't want not to either - and I chose to first instead of the second.

Of course, there was a strange _whooshing_ sound behind me, and while I got the urge to duck, I felt it pointless since he would eventually be able to shoot me anyway.

 _THWAP!_

 **DING! - 6 HP**

Then a kick to my head sent me sprawling to the ground, making me land on my hands and knees, I quickly turned around, sitting on my butt, - I wasn't expecting _that_ \- and then Reborn jumped on my stomach, looking pleased with himself. The words above his had changed, for some reason, to another set of similar, but not identical, words:

 **Lv 50**

 **Home Tutor Hitman**

 **Reborn**

 **PW - 75**

The words "Home Tutor Hitman Reborn", when strung together, reminded me of something, but that quickly left my head when I realized that **ENEMY COMBATANT** had left the words entirely, making me somewhat hopeful for some reason.

"Get up, Shichi - we have a lot of work to do." He stomped on my stomach, digging his heels into my tender stomach, before casually jumping off and gingerly dusting his clothes off. I slowly got to my feet - I feel pain everywhere, and I'm still trying to figure out what is going on.

"Wh-What do you mean, 'we have a lot of work to do', Reborn?".

Reborn turned to me with a judging look in his eye, and told me what he was thinking in plain and simple words: "You have potential, and I'm not going to let that go to waste."

"B-but… you… I… you thought I was a fake." I finished lamely.

Reborn looked at me with a blank look in his oval eyes. "Yes, Shichi," he said in a condescending tone of voice. " I _did_ think that you were an impostor - after looking at your actions in… wherever that was, I've decided that I was…" he looked a little pained upon saying this "... _incorrect_ … in my assessment."

At this point, I was stupefied. There was something wrong here - I could feel it. I didn't know why, but something told me that while he was telling me the truth he wasn't telling me the whole truth - he was definitely hiding something, that's for sure.

Reborn turned away from me, looking in the general direction of where my home was. "I'll tell you on the way to your home, Shichi." He pointed toward the road. "I'm pretty sure Tsuna and Nana are worried about you at home."

Kaa-chan!

I quickly remembered that she fell faint on the ground, no small amount of guilt running through my veins. I had become so preoccupied with the awful appearance I had gotten, as well as the struggle with Reborn and the M.A.D. world that I had forgotten about Kaa-chan's fainting.

Reborn smirked. "Don't worry about them, Shichi - before I kicked down the door I checked Nana's pulse and breaths. She was okay, she had only fainted. Although," he said, his smirk lessening, "You should probably check on her, just in case. Dame-Tsuna could mess up her health right now."

He didn't have to tell me twice. Even though I was bone-tired, I still picked myself up and began runni- no, OWOWOW - walking home. Reborn, the sadist, decided that my shoulder was a nice place to rest on and jumped on me. It heavily unbalanced me, but I decided not to say anything.

As I began to walk through the Streets of Namimori, Reborn decided to re-introduce himself. "My name is Reborn, the Home Tutor Hitman. A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Shichi."

Well, he was definitely singing a different tune than from earlier today. Not that I was unhappy, though - it sounded more and more like he wasn't going to kill me, which was definitely an upside, I guess.

"What do you mean, 'Home Tutor Hitman'?" I asked casually.

"What do you think, Shichi? I'm a Home Tutor and I'm a Hitman." Reborn replied brusquely.

Well, the hitman part is easily believable - he points guns at people incredibly easily, and him being a contract killer is nowhere near off the table, base off of what I saw earlier tonight.

"You're a Home Tutor?" That was what had confused me, in truth. Hitman, I can easily believe. Home Tutor, not so much.

"Yes, Shichi, I am a Home Tutor," Reborn said, exasperated in his tone. "Let's cut right to the chase - I've come to tutor your brother so that he could become a Mafia Don."

"Him? A Mafia Don? No offense, but a wet rag could be a better Mafia Boss than him, and it would have more spine too." I countered, because if you live with Aniki for any extended period of time you would realize that aside from video games he has no abilities whatsoever - I have Mick Neumann memories telling me what a Mafia Don is, and Aniki would be the least likely person, _ever_ , to become a Mafia Boss.

"The family had no choice, Shichi - the line of direct blood succession ends with you and Tsuna, and as he is the older brother he will be forced to be the Tenth Don of the Vongola Family."

I blinked.

"Line of succession? Our Kaa-chan has never spilled a drop of blood, ever - well, except when she cooks. And our dad goes off oil mining or something." I dismissed Reborn's claims.

Reborn's face was half-illuminated by the street light in the fall night, a look of mirth plastered on his face. "'Oil mining or something'? Is he really that good at pulling the wool over your family's eyes?"

I realized what Reborn was insinuating "You're joking, Reborn. As if our drunken layabout of a dad could ever actually be a Mafia Boss, or be even distantly related to him."

Reborn shook his head, the mirth never leaving him. "Well, you'll be surprised, because those extended 'trips' he takes for years are simply him do illegal business, Shichi - as for relations, Iemitsu's great great grandfather - you and Tsuna's great great great grandfather, by the way - was the First Boss of the Vongola Family, before he left for Japan for his retirement.

"His first line of children, which have resided in Italy for hundreds of years, have had the main line of succession, or at least they did until the last potential heir was killed a couple of months ago - well, the last potential heir in Italy that is. The Japanese line of succession, starting from the son the First had in Japan, is still viable.

"As your father is unable to become the Mafia Boss due to being part of an external intelligence organization allied with the Vongola, the line of succession falls to Tsuna and you. And as you are the younger brother, the line of succession falls to Tsuna to become the Tenth."

Well, that was a lot to take in - assuming what Reborn is saying is true, that would make a degree of sense. It wouldn't be the weirdest thing that has happened today, that's for sure (I'm pretty sure the "suspension" of my disbelief is in the stratosphere, anyway).

"Okay… so Aniki has to become the Tenth Don of this… Vongola, then. Why are you here - and what did you mean 'we have a lot of work to do'?" I pointedly asked.

Reborn smiled darkly. "I've come here to train Tsuna - I'm the best tutor in the whole of the Mafia. Oh, and we're at your, so I'll explain it when we're with your brother". He pointed in front of him, and I realized that we had eventually reached our house in the middle of our walking.

"... say, Reborn, what if Kaa-chan sees me again?" I ask almost timidly.

"The shock will have passed by then, and even though she won't faint she will be extremely worried. Let me handle it, Shichi." He jumped off me and knocked almost politely at the door. There was a series of quick and frantic thumps, followed by the door begin forcefully jerked open, revealing a tear-faced Kaa-chan. Upon looking at me, she forcefully dragged me inside. I offered no resistance.

"WHAT HAPPENED?" She cried, burying her ashen face into my chest. "I-I was so _worried_ for you… you… what happened?" she sobbed out even more tears.

Guilt was pouring through my body like an icy cold wave of misery, and I found my mouth was dry. Not like a desert or anything, but just dry, as if moving it would break so many things.

I… I had to tell her… she deserved to know…

… why wasn't my mouth working? Why can't I say anything?

Tears started pouring down my face as well, and I soon hugged her as well, as hard as I could.

I couldn't hold it back anymore. The Voice disappearing, the flames, the powers, the new memories, the Mafia, Reborn, the M.A.D…

The Game…

Everything came crashing down on me at once. I sprained my hand once, playing one of my video games on Aniki's system, and when it was injured I thought it was in the most pain I could ever be in.

Now, though… well, I should probably stop playing video games, if they want to hurt me this much, then.

Pain relievers do nothing for the heart.

Kaa-chan and I just stood there, together, crying into each other's shoulders as worry poured out of us like a miserable tsunami.

I don't know how long we stood there. It could have been ten seconds, a minute, ten minutes, an hour, and it doesn't matter, anyway. It felt like forever.

Eventually, Kaa-chan and I heard a sort of coughing noise, and we turned to see Reborn, a frown on his face as he looked at us.

"Shichi got into some trouble earlier today, Nana. He was mugged in an alleyway earlier today, and he was severely injured. He barely managed to escape with his life. We left earlier tonight to identify the culprit and we made sure the man was arrested. The police were very interested in the case, and it took time for them to be able to arrest him. Now he's safe - he needs to stay home from school for a couple of days, though, to recover. That's what the responders at the scene said, anyway."

Kaa-chan turned to me, her eyes pleading for the truth. "Shichi…?"

At this point, I felt absolutely awful. Kaa-chan won't believe me when I tell her what has happened to me. She sent me to the doctor multiple times before to get medicine for my 'mental illness', a.k.a. The Voice. If she hears what happened earlier today…

I had to keep this secret, even though I felt awful as I did so.

"Yes, Kaa-chan. I was mugged earlier today." My voice cracked at the end of the lie, and I only barely managed to keep myself from cursing the Game again, because if I do I'll be sent to another M.A.D.

Reborn hopped on my shoulder. "Tsuna will be worried, Nana, so Shichi and I are going to reassure him. Come on, Shichi." He tapped my cheek a couple of times. As I was getting up, the hate inside me broiled faster and faster. I didn't want to deal with this. I was never normal, but right now, that's all I want to be.

My steps were slow and heavy as I ascended the stairs. I eventually turned toward Aniki's room and slowly began opened his door.

Aniki was pacing around furiously inside, his face pale and clammy. When he heard the door open, he quickly twisted his head around to see me, Reborn on my shoulder. When he saw us, his eyes widened dramatically, before he stepped back and collapsed. Shaking, he softly began to cry.

I wanted nothing more than to join him, but Reborn has other ideas as he jumped off me walked across the room, and hit Aniki solidly across the face. Aniki let out a large cry, before nursing his face and wincing.

"Tsuna, don't be pathetic. Shichi is okay now, and your crying is annoying me.

A part of me winced, and as Reborn and Aniki attacked each other ferociously I felt even more alone than before.

Aniki ended their argument with a shout "Why were you attacking my brother? He was hurt and you went and threatened him!"

Reborn scoffed again. "Dame-Tsuna, you're too naive. Do you remember what I told you before the incident occurred?"

Aniki stopped his shouting, as his face, which had flushed in anger (which was new, usually he welcomes misfortune with open arms). He gained a confused look on his face - his thinking face - then slowly continued talking. "You said I was going to be the tenth-generation Mafia boss, right? For the… Vongola?" He questioned.

Reborn nodded, a patronizing feel to it. "Yes, Tsuna. You are going to be the next Vongola Boss. The Vongola is one of the top families on Earth, perhaps the strongest of them all. You're going to be one of the strongest men on Earth, Tsuna. You're definitely going to be the strongest man in the Mafia, though. I'm here as a representative of the Vongola to make you capable of the job."

You could hear a pin drop in the room if you wanted to. While I had recognized Aniki was going to be important, I didn't know the sheer scope of the power Aniki was to inherit. To think, if he hadn't been born…

"HIEEEEEEE!" There was Aniki's signature shriek, the one that made neighbors think we had a defective smoke detector. "R-Reborn! I-I can't do that. I'm the biggest loser in the world - it's impossible for me to become someone like that."

Reborn glared at Aniki, and the room's temperature dropped a few degrees. "Are you doubting my ability, Dame-Tsuna?" He asked while fingering the green gun he hadn't let go of. He pointed the gun at Tsuna. "I could end you right here if I wanted to - the Vongola had another potential heir in Shichi, and while your father would mourn you, his hands would be tied behind his back.

"I'll ask you again - are you doubting my ability?"

The room seemed to freeze, nobody but Reborn not daring to move a muscle. Slowly, Aniki shook his head. Reborn's gun began to glow a myriad of rainbow colors and the gun's form shifted and turned, eventually becoming a green lizard that nested itself on the brim of Reborn's hat.

"That's what I thought. I'll make you into a fine Mafia boss yet, Dame-Tsuna. Just wait and see." Reborn let those words hang in the air of the room. "I had attacked Shichi because I thought he was an impostor - some data in the Mafia world can't be hidden forever, and Shichi's aura and general demeanor led me to believe that a rival family had attacked him this morning and had an impostor impersonate him to get close to you." Aniki's face turned green as the implications of what Reborn said ran through his mind. My face was green too (I think).

Reborn went on with his explanation of the night's events. "The events that occurred tonight have made me believe differently though, as what the changes to Shichi can be also relegated to trauma and activation of innate abilities. His inexperience in using the aforementioned abilities convinced me of his innocence."

That… makes a whole lot more sense, now. I guess the fight with the Hareharis changed his view, then.

Aniki looked confused. "Innate abilities? Trauma?" He took a hard look at me. "Shichi what happened?"

I proceeded to tell Aniki about what had happened today, starting with the first M.A.D. Reborn and Aniki paid rapt attention as I told them an abridged story with the M.A.D. world suddenly appearing around me right after class. I neglected to tell them about the Game or the Voice or about the Neumann memories, as I had a funny feeling that those would best be left unknown for now.

I told them how I ran away from the Somnharis (which took a little bit of explaining to Aniki. The bile afterward was not fun to clean up) and how I nearly died by their spiky hands.

I told them about the strange voice that had helped me when all seemed lost (not to be confused with the Voice, my lifelong companion). I told them how I activated my strange psychic powers and the weird green flames. I told them how I attacked the Somnharis that had surrounded me with those powers and flames.

Reborn had a pensive look on his face as I spoke this while Aniki was steadily turning both paler and greener.

I told them how I walked home slowly and how once Kaa-chan saw me she felt faint. Once I told them that, I faced Reborn and asked him to finish. Reborn nodded, then proceeded to concisely tell what happened after Aniki had fainted, from Reborn attacking me (which I thought was _not_ okay) to the attacks of the Somnharis and Hareharis in the second M.A.D. world, culminating with the return home and the lie we fed to Kaa-chan.

"... and then we came up here, Dame-Tsuna."

Aniki was silent for a time, digesting the bombshells Reborn and I had just dropped on him.

"... so, you have magic powers now, Shichi, after awakening them in the weird M.A.D. world you created?" he summarized. I nodded, glad I didn't have to explain it to Aniki again.

Reborn continued. "Now we come back to you, Tsuna." Our attention snapped back to Reborn, with a feeling of worry beginning to creep up my veins.

"While you are undoubtedly going to become the next heir, Tsuna, there are factions in the Vongola that will reject you. If my accurate reports to the Ninth get leaked out, we will have some people in the Vongola wish for Shichi to become heir instead, as he will seem more capable then you." He explained.

The pit of my stomach dropped. If the Vongola turned us against each other…

"You two are already part of the Mafia by birthright, and the Mafia is incredibly cutthroat. If you want to be safe, you two will have to defend yourselves together. This is the only option". Reborn finished.

I tried to find a fault in his reasoning, any fault in his reasoning…

… yet all I could feel was a chill crawling up my spine.

Aniki was frozen in his place, much like I was. The ultimatum Reborn provided us was nearly unreasonable. We had to become criminals, monsters, to survive.

Our morality, or our lives…?

… Why can't I say that I won't be a mafioso? Why does it get stuck in my throat…?

… I'm a bigger coward then Aniki, then.

"F-fine." I managed to spit out, the words tasting like poison on my lips. "I-if it will keep us safe and t-together…," I managed to bite out, "then I-I'll become a Mafioso." I felt like I signed a contract with a devil - now that I think about it, I probably already have.

Aniki tried to protest, but choked and stayed silent. I wish I could say I tried as hard.

Reborn solemnly nodded, pulling the brim of his hat to shadow his face. "It's not like you had a choice, anyway. I would have forced you to become a Mafioso at gunpoint, anyway. I'll probably still be forced to use the gunpoint at Dame-Tsuna, anyway."

Aniki gulped, but a steely and determined look entered his eye and I felt Reborn's words were infinitely true in that regard. And while the bit about "no choice" makes me feel ever so slightly better about this nightmare, I wish I could have been as brave as Aniki - and that's a phrase I never thought I would think in my life.

"Shichi is going to have to become part of your family, Dame-Tsuna, if he's going to want to survive." Reborn opened a briefcase which had been lying in the corner of the room. "Tomorrow, I'll begin to train both of you. It'll be difficult, but I will manage. You'll stay home tomorrow, Shichi - I'll arrange for you to have a 'sickness' so you can skip school for your first lesson." Reborn pulled out a pair of pink pajamas with white polka dots, then set up a hammock insanely fast in the corner of Aniki's room. "In the meantime, get some sleep - You'll need it for tomorrow.".

He then went to sleep, a snot bubble protruding from his baby nose. The conversation was over. I slowly left the room, despairing over my fate.

I brushed my teeth, changed into my pajamas and threw my bloody uniform to the side, and fell asleep, hungry and hopeless.


	3. An Illusion

I woke to the sound of birds chirping. Opening my eyes, I saw golden sunlight streaming through the window. I attempted to push myself up but failed, feeling all the aches of yesterday. Then I groaned.

Yesterday…

Yesterday was a true nightmare. In only one day, my life was upended completely. I wake up with the memories of this Nick Neumann guy, my life turns into an obnoxious Game, and I learn Aniki will become the next boss of the… Vongola Family. The Voice, meanwhile, left me yesterday afternoon, and I can't help but resent it for doing that.

 _Hey, Shichi, it's not my fault!_

Well, look who's back. Where were you yesterday? You disappeared after the first M.A.D., and you left me all alone - what gives? I was in serious danger, and you could have really helped me.

 _Well, I'm sorry, but once you deactivated your powers I was forced into the back of your mind. I couldn't control it, Shichi - I had no choice._

So let me get this straight - after you appeared as this weird cat-thing (please explain that by the way, I still don't understand that), you were… forced into the back of my mind, and you couldn't do anything.

 _Right!_

...WHY?! WHY ON EARTH DID THAT HAPPEN?! WHY ON EARTH IS ANY OF THIS HAPPENING?!

 _Shichi, calm down - I don't exactly know what happened, it's the first time that ever happened to me, no matter what host I've been in._

WHAT ARE YOU?!

 _Shichi, calm down! Let me answer your questions, and don't worry - I'll explain what I know to your right now, so don't worry._

Well, you'd better… I slowly began to calm down, because the Voice was always a soothing presence to me.

 _Great, glad to hear it._ The voice remarked. _And it's nice to hear what a soothing presence I am to you. Anyway, I think I was pushed to the back of your mind because of those weird Flames you used. During the first couple of seconds of you using that strange green Flame, I was at my full power, able to exist in a physical form._

Yeah, could you tell me about that?

 _Oh, sure. Before that strange awakening of your powers, I was stuck as something you could only hear in your thoughts, Shichi. I had my own memories and thought processes, but the only thing I could do was talk to you, Shichi._

 _When you activated those powers, however - that strange psychic power and the weird Flame power - I was able to take a more physical form. I still am able to do that, actually._

Really? Can I see it?

In response, I began to feel a strange rumbling around my stomach area. Soon enough, the cat-like visage I saw yesterday afternoon appeared, the smiling face of The Voice beaming at me.

"So, Shichi, how do I look". The Voice, as if to punctuate its point, began to wiggle around, as if dancing to something strange.

"Nah, I'm not dancing." And the Voice was still able to read my thoughts, apparently.

"Yup!"

Looking at the Voice in its current state, it occurred to me that it couldn't be called a Voice anymore since it was clearly so much more than that.

"Yeah, but I don't really have a name, Shichi - if I did, I would tell you." The Voice-that-was-more-than-a-Voice shrugged. "And that hyphenated name won't work at all."

It added as an afterthought.

Well, do you have any ideas on what could be your name, then?

It tilted its head as if in deep thought, looking like one of those toys I've seen in the windowsill recently. "Stop it Shichi, you're not making this easy. Try not to think as much." Easier said than done.

The Voice and I sat like that for a couple of minutes, while we bounced ideas off of each other. It was taking so long a time that my butt was beginning to feel numb in my bed.

"What about Kaki. Short for Kakimasu." The Voice offered.

No, that sucked. It didn't really fit the Voice's visage anyway. Speaking of your Visage, what are you, anyway.

The Voice smiled. "I'm a fourth generation Monitalien, a Water Planet Support System Drubit, type 387."

… What?

The Voice sighed. "In short, I'm a Monitalien, from the planet Gryphis"

What's a Monitalien, and what's Gry… you're an alien, then.

The Monitalien nodded. "Yeah. I'm an intelligence gatherer - using your senses and my brain, I send information about Earth to Gryphis, a planet far, far away from Earth. Well, I did, but for the longest time Gryphis hasn't been receiving any communications, so all the intelligence I've been amassing has gone to waste."

And what's a Water Planet Support System Drubit? "That just means that I'm capable of adapting to a planet that has water as its main resource." Type 387? "That's my classification among the other Monitaliens, so Gryphis can differentiate between us."

Well, that's a lot to take in.

"Don't worry about it, Shichi - that's why we're thinking of a name, after all."

Right, right… so, basically, you're a living bug?

"Living bug?" The Monitalien popped back into me, and I could almost feel it poking around in my mind. About a second later, it popped back out. "Oh, you mean a spy bug, like those in the thriller movies Kaa-chan likes to watch." The Monitalien visibly thought about it for a second. "Yeah, I can see the resemblance. Of course, I'm not evil."

Right, you just gather information and knowledge… wait, I think I've figured out your name!

"Oh, oh, tell me!" You can look into my thoughts, right - I don't actually have to do that. "I want to hear it from your mouth, I'm ignoring your musings right now." Fine, Fine…

"Chishiki." My gravelly voice churns out. Chishiki - Knowledge. Somewhat fitting, don't you think.

"Hmm… you know, it just doesn't fit. I don't really think I like it." Really? It fits you well.

"No, it's just that I WANTED TO SEE THE LOOK ON YOUR FACE!" The Monitalien, who I am now going to call Chishiki either way, began to laugh uproariously, a high-pitched squeak erupting from its tiny, tiny mouth.

Glad to know that Chishiki is a prankster. You learn something new every day.

Chishiki continued to giggle, hiccuping every now and again, and I patiently waited for it to calm down.

"Ha… Ha… " Chishiki thankfully stopped laughing from its joke.

"It's not… my fault you don't find it funny. The LOOK on your face… precious…" What about my face was so precious, anyway. It wasn't like I was in shock or anything - I know my mouth wasn't gaping, that's for sure. "It's not that, it's just that I can't help but look at your confused face and fall into laughter. I can't help it - I've never seen you look confused before, up close, and it's hilarious" Okay, Okay, laugh it up.

"Hoo… anyway, Chishiki is a fun name, and I can definitely get used to it" Chishiki said. "I've been with you your whole life as nothing more than a voice, though, so I suspect you'll find it hard to adjust."

Oh, right… hey, I just thought of something. If Gryphis no longer talks to you, then why are you inside me?

"Because I can't survive without a host?" Chishiki explained as if it were obvious "Of course, it's obvious, that's what parasites do, Shichi.". Then Chishiki, tilting his head a little bit, visibly remembered something. "Oh, yeah, and our bodies are connected, so any damage you accumulate gets inflicted on me as well, and vice-versa."

Wait, by vice-versa, you mean that if you get damaged, I get damaged as well?

"Yup!"

Well, that sucks!

"You're going to have to learn how to deal with it, Shichi, because I'm stuck with you for life - since if we're connected we feel each other's injuries and I can't survive without you, it's impossible for you to survive without me."

… so, basically, you infected me, and are unable to be removed without killing us both."

"Well, I can remove myself to transfer to a new host, but other than that, no, you're stuck with me for the rest of your life."

*sigh* Okay, whatever. It's not like anything has changed, anyway. All that's different is that you can come out now.

"Isn't it great?"

Not really.

"Too bad. Anyway, I've answered all of your questions, Shichi."

Right, right… you're a brain alien that was supposed to gather information, that attaches itself to a host and gets connected to it permanently at the expense of the individual… are there more of you?

"Yeah, but I have no idea where they are. I don't really care, either way - we're supposed to be spread out to gather as much information as possible. And looking into your mind, that's all the questions you have, so let's get ready for the day."

So I stretch- OWOWOWOWOW! EVERYTHING HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUURTS!

"STOP FEELING SO MUCH PAIN, SHICHI - I DON'T LIKE IT."

YOU'RE TELLING ME?

So we decided not to stretch, or even get out of bed, for fear of that strange burning sensation that flowed through my veins the instant I stretched my back.

Exhausted, I laid down on my side, looking at my nightstand… that had a book on it that I've never seen before.

"Ooh, Ooh, read it Shichi, I'm interested." Chishiki oh-so-helpfully ordered me to do. "I want to know moooooorrreeeee." And he has now officially gone insane. "Hey!

I blinked and decided that since I wasn't getting out of bed I might as well read the book, and reached my hand out to grab it. But instead of touching the hard-cover of the book my hand came into contact with a sheet of paper instead.

So I grabbed it and read it instead.

 _Hello, Shichi._

 _This is Reborn. These are your orders for today. I've noticed that your body has developed Flame Scarring from your actions yesterday and last night, so I've decided that you are too young for that kind of training. Since I must take care of Tsuna, I've left a book you will read on Illusions and the basics of ESP. Read from Chapters One through Four - that will be enough to use the most basic of illusions. Be prepared to show me what you've learned tonight when Tsuna and I have returned._

 **Request! [Read the Book!]**

 **[Reborn] requests you to [Read the Book!]**

 **Timed**

 **Objectives:**

 **Read the first four chapters**

 **Success: None**

 **Failure: -2 REP with [Reborn]**

 **Bullets from [Reborn]**

A timer appeared in my vision. I twitched.

 _Shichi, no. Remember what happened yesterday?_

This Game will annoy me to death before anything else, mark my words.

* * *

Thirty minutes later, I slammed the book close (making sure to bookmark my page, of course - wouldn't want to read through all of it again).

"Why is this so boring?" I nagged. The first chapter, just a measly five pages long, took only about ten minutes, and just went over the theoretical aspects of the Psychic Power.

It was pretty interesting - apparently, the brain releases an undetectable energy, which generally corresponds to how intelligent you are, along with how many things you've experienced. The energy can then be used in a variety of ways by certain people, including Psychokinesis (which is what I can use). While concentrated in the head, the energy runs throughout the body, and it causes an aura to be emanated, most likely the aura Reborn was talking about last night when he had attacked me. So, thinking about this logically, the cause of the problem last night with Reborn happened because I unlocked my Psychic Powers and Aura. That happened because I was threatened in the M.A.D. The M.A.D. is made by the Game.

Therefore, the Game is the source of all my problems.

 _That doesn't make sense, Shichi._

Chishiki, who popped back into my head earlier, was making no sense. Of course, the Game was responsible for everything that happened to me - nothing else could have caused it.

 _You insulted the Game for no reason, Shichi. What did you expect to happen?_

Not the M.A.D, that's for sure.

The second chapter, meanwhile, had to do with actually using said energy. Apparently, one could access these abilities using meditation or something like that. I don't need that, though, considering what had happened last night.

 _It might be good for you anyway, though - you have the attention span of a koala. You could sit down and think for a little bit instead of running your mouth off at me._

I didn't listen to Chishiki, of course.

 _No, you didn't._

Ignoring Chishiki, I, for fun, decided to bring my Psychic Power to use.

You know, watching this cool energy swirl around on my hand is pretty fun… okay, now I'm bored.

 _Attention span of a koala._

Oh, be quiet.

 _You really need to learn some manners. You're nine, grow up a little bit_

The third chapter had to do with Psychokinesis. There were some basics, like how to move an apple or whatever, I didn't care. It was pretty simple, either way - use the energy to push things. I flipped through the third chapter really quickly, because I probably knew everything in the chapter anyway.

 _You have been able to use Psychokinesis for a literal day, Shichi. Actually, less than that._

The fourth chapter, though, was _reaaaaaalllyyy_ interesting. It had to do with the power of Illusions, using the Psychic Power to lay false sensation to your victims. I could barely contain my _glee_ at learning the most boring of abilities.

 _Don't judge it so quickly, Shichi._

Really? Chishiki, when have you heard someone that uses illusions to ever do anything useful? In video games, they're taken out in only a couple of hits and everyone can see through the illusions anyway.

 _Still, Reborn will be upset if you don't read it, though._

I could care less about what he thinks.

… _I've looked through your memories, Shichi, and he nearly shot you. Why are you being so_ idiotic _today?_

I laid down on my bed, wishing that I could watch paint dry - that was preferable to reading this insanely boring book. Reborn and the Game's request could move to Antarctica for all I cared. Chishiki, meanwhile, _wouldn't stop talking_. He just kept blabbering on and on about how I needed to pay attention to a subject that was duller than Aniki's intelligence.

… _you know what? I'll stay quiet for now - it'll allow me some time to calm down from all of the poor, poor decisions you're making._

See you later!

 _Ugh…_

… you know, now that Chishiki wasn't talking I actually felt kind of lonely. He, although incredibly naggy, was a fun person to talk to.

I still couldn't get out of bed, because every time I tried to move more than a little bit at a time my body would burn up and I would curl up into a fetal position.

So… I guess it's naptime, then.

… Night, Chishiki

* * *

Reborn surveyed Tsuna with a critical eye as he fought Gokudera, the Hitman he had hired from Italy to test Tsuna. Tsuna was battling Gokudera using the Dying Will Mode and was doing fairly well - of course, Tsuna would be nothing but his best under the Dying Will, anyway. He thought that Gokudera was doing rather well, too - his unique choice of weapons in Dynamite made him much more viable for the test, as it would give Tsuna a chance and allow him to grow, unlike if he had used a normal gun-toting hitman you could hire for 100 euros.

Reborn considered the battle below as it unfolded, thinking in his tree-hideaway. As Gokudera threw his Dynamite in increasingly larger and larger numbers in hope of landing a blow on Tsuna, Tsuna would not stop in his induced fervor. All in all, it was going swimmingly - mostly.

Gokudera wasn't familiar with the Dying Will Bullets (or Dying Will Pills, for that matter) and had no idea that the Dying Will Mode even existed. Fighting someone in Dying Will Mode was much more difficult endeavor than fighting someone who was acting normally.

Normal people flinched from shockwaves and loud noises, almost unconsciously. So, an intelligent teenager like Gokudera probably factored in the recoil when practicing his Dynamite skills, and this was clearly visible in his throws. When throwing multiple bombs in a fight, you don't aim directly at the target - rather, you aim next to them so when they move to the other side to avoid it, you hit them cleanly with a second bomb.

People in Dying Will Mode, however, don't have this recoil, as they are fighting without regard for their safety or lives. Tsuna simply ran through the bombs that exploded off to his side.

Reborn had predicted that Tsuna's Dying Will would be to extinguish the bombs so they don't explode and disturb the head prefect Hibari - after all, while he was much more dangerous than some rabid animal of a prefect, Hibari was much more intimidating, and Tsuna's fear and current pacifist nature should have made him regret not defusing the bombs instead of not fighting back, giving him a new Guardian.

Instead, Tsuna's Dying Will was focused on defeating Gokudera, and while that was nice and all (Reborn was considering how he would get rid of Tsuna's pacifism, because that would get him killed in the Mafia. The worry was a lot less now.), it would make it much more dangerous for Gokudera.

Luckily, Gokudera was efficient in his evasive maneuvers and managed to use Dynamite to propel himself away from Tsuna's destructive blows, at a cost of a few injuries. He barely managed to beat the clock of five minutes on Tsuna's Dying Will Mode, a few seconds away from permanent injury.

Gokudera then professed his undying loyalty to Tsuna, his eyes wide, round, and begging. He declared that Tsuna would be the Tenth Vongola Boss and that he had impressed Gokudera with his fighting skills, enough that Gokudera would be his right-hand man.

Reborn couldn't tell if it was genuine or not (someone declaring their undying loyalty to an up-and-coming Mafia Boss was more common than you think, and some of those bosses ended up poisoned a couple of weeks later through mysterious circumstances) but Tsuna trusted him and the vaunted Hyper Intuition was leagues above any intuition he himself had.

Anyway, he had done a discreet background check on Gokudera before hiring him anyway, and he was born to a family allied to the Vongola, so he had a lot less to fear.

"Ah… alright." That was a response he didn't expect. "Welcome, then. I hope we can work together well, then, Gokudera-san".

As Gokudera happily nodded (then proceeded to explode a couple of bullies from higher grades under protest from Tsuna) Reborn considered Tsuna's attitude toward being a Mafia Boss. Had his speech from last night really affected him that much? It seems that Dame-Tsuna can be properly motivated to do something when someone close to him was in danger - the apparent threats to his brother must have spurred him to be a Mafia Boss.

What Reborn had expected would take multiple years of cajoling and coaxing had taken a single night (Honestly, though. He would have to test Tsuna's compatibility with Lightning Flames because in addition to all-encompassing tolerance of the Sky he showed a clear need for protection, both of him and his close ones.). Thankfully, Reborn now had a hot button he could use to push Tsuna's buttons.

Tsuna's "brother", "Shichi Sawada". Now there was an enigma.

* * *

In the beginning, Iemitsu had ordered him to distance Shichi and Nana as much as possible from the Mafia. Reborn classified Iemitsu as either delusional or inexperienced because of this, and both were bad. Distancing Shichi and Nana from the Mafia once revealing it to Tsuna would be harder on everyone, as in addition to keeping a massive secret, something which Tsuna is _not capable_ of yet, they would have to protect the both of them from attackers and assassins _without their knowing about it_. There would be little to no benefit from keeping it hidden.

Either Iemitsu knew about the dangers and believed it wouldn't apply to him (Reborn pitied the man if this was true) or he was ignorant to the dangers. Either way, he reported this to Timoteo, just to see his reaction (neither of them had any real power over CEDEF, after all). In the meantime, he had to follow the orders until Timoteo laid out contradictory orders, and didn't tell Nana or Shichi.

This lasted until he first met "Shichi", when extenuating circumstances (intense aura with dark spots associated with murder) forced him to conduct an emergency "interrogation".

Regarding interrogation, as in gaining direct information, it was a pathetic attempt, as true information gathering was done through spies and willing confessions. Only the real brutes, like those in the lower class, actually ever resorted to violence or torture in their interrogations.

Reborn used the "interrogation" to gather indirect information on the impostor's reactions to physical attack as well as. While his (or her, you couldn't tell) reactions were civilian level (except for the speedy dodges), a master spy could act like a civilian to the way they slept while unconscious - in other words, nothing definitive. Speaking in English, just to test foreign language comprehension, yielded fruitful results as well, and served to scare the clear spy once ousted.

Deciding to "scare" the impostor into a confession, Reborn prepared to shoot the impostor with a non-lethal bullet laced with soporific poison and cart him (or her) off for a true interrogation (and lecture Tsuna on spies and impostors, because he fell for that _way_ too easy for someone with Hyper Intuition, lack of training aside).

Then everything went sideways, diagonally, and rotationally for good measure.

All of the sudden, Reborn's senses went haywire. An immediate check of the surroundings left Reborn with an insane number of questions, like "How did everything suddenly get fixed?", "Where did Tsuna and Nana go?" and "Why is the sky green?"

While he let the impostor recover, he did a quick sweep of his surroundings. Everything seemed to be in pristine condition, even the door he had broken down a ten or fifteen minutes earlier - rather, the door was ajar now. Along with the clearly fake Sky, Reborn deduced that he was in an Illusion. That was the only logical response to this. Of course, to be able to use an Illusion of this magnitude without tripping his honed senses meant abilities rivaling that of Viper, _which was extremely dangerous_.

Viper was one of the most feared Esper for a reason, and he was the _most_ feared Illusionist. If another family had an Illusionist of this magnitude…

Well, Reborn was at the mercy of the Illusionist anyway, for now. He had to go along with this, since he had no actual defenses against Illusionists except for breaking the Illusion by attacking the Illusionist. However, if the level of control the Illusionist had over him was at the level where he couldn't sense the Illusion itself, then he had no chance with a direct confrontation.

The Illusionist could directly stop his heart, after all.

He would escape, though. Other than escaping the Illusion itself, which was clearly not an option, Reborn could outsmart the Illusionist enough to escape their grasp. Once escaped, he would take Tsuna and run for the hills, and pay Viper and whatever subordinates he has a king's ransom to rid the Vongola of this dangerous new threat.

In the meantime, he had to survive. So he played along with the Illusionist and watched "Shichi" very carefully as he attacked the "Somnharis", the eldritch monster the Illusionist could cook up, with apparently novice-level Esper abilities. Reborn maintained a cocky exterior to fool the Illusion into becoming arrogant, but his mind was working furiously as he tried to find a way out of his predicament.

Then they reached the "School Gate", and everything went pear-shaped.

At the cast-iron gate, the Illusionist had created a glowing blue pillar of fire. Reborn knew that if he stepped in there he would die - no questions asked. It was such an obvious trap that Reborn worried it was a double trap, or potentially and quadruple trap or sextuplets trap. The mind of an illusionist could be infinitely convoluted and complex, so Reborn, unfortunately, was unable to make a good guess.

As they approached, Reborn began to do an action he hadn't been forced to do in decades - panic. Illusionists weren't his cup of espresso - he preferred to not play with mind-games, and the Illusionist was clearly a master at this.

So he did something absolutely stupid, which might have actually saved his life.

Once he neared the "portal" he whipped around. If he was going to die anyway, well, he might as well shoot the Illusionist while he was at it, or at least the Illusionist's cohort.

"Arrivederci, Shichi."

"Shichi" dodged it, of course, because the Illusionist would naturally derail his aim so that he would miss. Reborn planned to keep on firing and hope he hit something (at the cost of collateral damage, of course), that something being the Illusionist.

Then more monsters exploded, and Reborn cursed - of course the Illusionist finally turned the figments of imagination against him.

Reborn prepared to shoot - but instead of attacking him they went after "Shichi". While Reborn imagined the Illusionist made the Somnharis to lead Reborn into believing this he'll world was real - as if - these new monsters looked completely different. He watched them attack "Shichi" in confusion, trying to figure out the Illusionist's aim.

Then it clicked.

Infiltration. It all lead to infiltration.

The Illusionist like him, in a sense. In fact, the Illusionist was like all of the Mafioso in the world. All the Illusionist wanted was power. The ability to influence decisions all across the world in your favor. Practically all Mafioso want power - in fact, the only people who don't want power are those that have had near unchallenged power, like that of the Vongola boss, and decided that, hey, they didn't like ultimate power as much as they thought.

The reason Reborn was working for Timoteo was that such a position gave him much influence over the most powerful person in the world. He would be able to guide Timoteo's decisions to his liking with careful comments and general influence. He was able to "make" decisions within the Vongola that would be heard and followed because they came from the mouth of Timoteo, while Reborn himself would be free of any blame or work within executing those decisions.

In fact, he became a tutor for Mafia Bosses for this very reason. He wished to shape the mind of the leaders of the Mafia in the future to his liking, leaving a legacy that would remain for centuries. They might even continue to rely on him as the years passed, ensuring a deep well of power to draw upon.

The Illusionist was trying to achieve the same thing. The Illusionist wanted to worm their way into Tsuna's trust, not to hurt the Vongola (because there were much easier ways of doing that then this pretentious charade), but to gain the influence a Guardian would carry. The Illusionist _knew_ Reborn's incredibly prodigious intelligence, as it was well known within the Mafia world, and used their own intelligence to present their abilities. In other words, they were advertising.

For all he knew, Shichi wasn't even dead - just put in a different location for this charade.

.

.

.

.

.

The Illusionist would be an _excellent_ Mist Guardian - perfect for the mind-bending role. Reborn would have to recruit him.

So Reborn "saved" the Illusionist and pretended to agree that the Illusionist was really Shichi. They both knew that Tsuna finding out his brother was kidnapped would be disadvantageous for both of them (as long as Shichi was kidnapped and away from the eyes of the Mafia, Reborn would be satisfied), so the Illusionist played their role as "Shichi" to perfection. Reborn was impressed.

Of course, he would make the Illusionist's life a living hell in "training", but hey, nobody fooled him without some form of repercussions.

* * *

The "brother" would be an ally for Tsuna, but nonetheless, Reborn would have to keep an eye on them. He would send a letter to Timoteo detailing what had happened, then continue to observe the Illusionist as he assimilated within Namimori.

He would have to ask the Illusionist to probe into Gokudera later to see if there was anything interesting, but other than that, he would do nothing. In fact, given the Illusionist's amazing control of all senses, he really would be able to do anything, either. Maybe he would locate Viper and pay them for some information on how to deal with expert Illusionists (they would laugh, that's for sure).

For now, he would observe Gokudera as well to determine any other allegiances (if he had no other allegiances and was truly loyal to Tsuna, he would make Gokudera into a Guardian. Storm seemed like a nice one), as well as Yamamoto Takeshi and Hibari Kyoya. They both had potential in spades.

Yamamoto was silent and controlled, always monitoring his actions as well as continually observing his classmates. While Reborn could tell this was for popularity reasons, it would easily translate into the Mafia world as a valuable skill. In addition to this, he was a prodigy at baseball, which would also adapt easily to the constant physical action of the Mafia world. He continuously defused conflicts between classmates with ease, making Reborn think that Yamamoto would fit easily into the role of the Rain Guardian.

Hibari, meanwhile, was the opposite of Yamamoto in terms of personality. While Yamamoto was controlled and sociable, Hibari was wild and a loner. Reborn saw Hibari beat up a boy who was late earlier that day, right when school was starting. Hibari fought like, for a lack of a better word, an animal. He was near feral, with little to no actual form, mostly relying on just his instincts to get through his fights (which worked to his advantage, after all - his instincts were incredibly honed).

While Hibari was attacking the boy, Reborn noticed something. Hibari's attacks were brutal, but they didn't seem to cause much pain. Instead of bloody injuries, bruises formed on the boy instead. Rather than actually fighting the boy, he seemed to be disciplining him instead - which fit with the picture of Hibari disciplining him instead. Hibari's attacks never broke skin, and the attacks came in quick, but weak, succession. Reborn wondered if those weaker attacks were his instincts or weakness.

Outside of battle, Hibari spent his time staring out of windows (he never attended class, for some reason). He would never talk to any other student if there was no need for discipline - Hibari was a loner, after all. That, along with his prodigious strength, made him another Guardian candidate, most likely Cloud if his intuition was correct.

Of course, he couldn't definitively say whether they would be Guardians or not - he would have to check their Flame Type - but out of everyone else in Namimori that Tsuna was attached to, they would be the most feasible.

The smoke finally cleared from where Gokudera had launched his dynamite upon the bullies, and Gokudera was smirking as Tsuna looked on with horror upon the carnage Gokudera had wreaked. Hibari then appeared onto the scene, looked peeved beyond compare at the damage Gokudera had caused to the school.

"Herbivores… who caused all of this destruction." Hibari then brought out his weapons, a pair of steel tonfas, and pointed them toward the new pair.

Gokudera whipped out some more dynamite. "Che… wouldn't you like to know?" Gokudera threw the Dynamite (ignoring Tsuna's loud protests) to Hibari, who nimbly stepped to the side to avoid the explosions.

Killing intent began to be emitted from Hibari as he coldly regarded the pair "I will bite you to death." The next three minutes consisted of a vicious beatdown from Hibari's part as Gokudera attempted to fight Hibari with the Dynamite failed miserably. Hibari dodged all of Gokudera's attacks and closed the range between them, sending out vicious attack after vicious attack. Soon Gokudera had collapsed from the pain - Hibari probably hadn't been as forgiving with Gokudera as he had been with the boy from earlier.

Tsuna scuttled back in fear, and Reborn prepared to shoot him with a Dying Will Bullet - he didn't think he would have to use another bullet today, and yet here he was - but Hibari didn't seem to register Tsuna's petrified existence, as he turned around and began walking away.

Soon enough Tsuna, having unfrozen, picked up Gokudera. Reborn revealed himself at last, his ever-present smirk plastered across his face.

"Reborn!" Tsuna was too surprised - he wasn't making any particularly hard effort to hide, so Tsuna being unable to detect him showed a large gap in Tsuna's perception.

"Ciaossu. I've noticed that Smoking Bomb is unconscious." He gestured toward Gokudera. "Let's bring him to your house so he can have a chance to recover."

"Smoking Bomb?" Tsuna asked, confused.

"Gokudera Hayato, the Smoking Bomb Hitman. He's known for using Dynamite extensively and is highly respected for his tactical mind and prodigious abilities" Reborn smirked. "And now he's your subordinate, Tsuna."

As Reborn talked, Tsuna shakily lifted Gokudera onto his shoulders. "Wha… What do you mean, my subordinate?"

Reborn scoffed. "Tsuna, how do you think you're going to lead your loyal family. While you're going to be the next boss, Tsuna, you're going to need a power base so that other members of the family accept you. You're a relative unknown to them, after all. And to grow a power base, you are going to need some followers, at the very least. Gokudera will be your first Tsuna, and he is loyal to you now."

Tsuna grumbled but began to carry Gokudera to the Sawada residence so that he could rest off the injuries Hibari had given him.

Yes, Tsuna was developing quite nicely. He wasn't complaining as much now - Reborn guessed that he was starting to accept the fact that he was going to be the Mafia boss. This took several years with Dino, so having it occur so fast was a nice change of pace.

As they began to near the Sawada residence, Reborn wondered how much the Illusionist had actually bothered reading the book. They probably knew everything in the book already - so Reborn making him read the book was just play. Reborn was going to make him read the book in front of him, though - he hoped that the Illusionist would be irritated beyond all belief at the chore.

Tsuna knocked on the door of his house (with some difficulty, as he still had Gokudera slung over his soldier. Reborn had thought that Tsuna was weaker than that). A minute later Nana appeared, a steel ladle in her hand. She looked slightly worried, her face lined.

"Tsu-kun! Why are you so late!" She asked, waving the ladle slightly.

"S-sorry, Kaa-chan. I was busy today with a volleyball game. I was one of the players." Tsuna hurriedly explained, his face sweating slightly

She pouted for a second, then sighed. "Oh well." Reborn felt a degree of concern for Nana. They were several hours late, after all. Tsuna hadn't told Nana about the volleyball game he had played in after school that day, so Nana had been expecting them much earlier. This level of acceptance was surreal - no wonder Tsuna was so wimpy if this was his role model in life.

Nana then proceeded to notice Gokudera, who was resting on Tsuna's shoulder. "Oh, and who is this?" she asked politely, not even sounding surprised. Reborn really needed to get her head checked out (although this may or may not make it easier for her to deny the Mafia's existence).

"This is Gokudera-san, Kaa-chan. He was playing volleyball with me earlier today and got hurt. Can I let him rest on my bed for now?" Tsuna lie- no, it wasn't a lie actually. Reborn was slightly, and pleasantly, shocked. Tsuna had the capability to half-lie - that was going to be a boon further down the road, and he would make Tsuna well aware of it.

Nana nodded and opened the door wide with her free hand. Tsuna shuffled inside his home, Reborn following suit soon after. Together they walked up the stairs, Reborn having to stabilize Tsuna as he had been tipping backward halfway up the stairs. They slowly made it into Tsuna's room and navigated around the trash he would make Tsuna clean up later to gently lay Gokudera on Tsuna's bed.

Tsuna then collapsed, apparently tired. Reborn considered waking him up to clean up his room but then thought better of it. Tsuna had a long day today and worked himself to exhaustion - he deserved a rest.

Then he thought of what Lal Mirch would say and changed his mind again.

She usually had good ideas after all.

Reborn jumped onto Tsuna's bed, readied his infantile hand, and slapped Tsuna straight across the face, knocking him into the wall. While Tsuna futilely tried to escaped, Reborn succinctly told him that his room was a pigsty and that it should be cleaned before he returned in… let's say, an hour.

Tsuna hurriedly nodded, looking worried for his life - for a minute there he was worried he was losing his cruel edge, after all. A hardened heart like his takes work to maintain.

As Tsuna scrambled around tidying his wayward clothes and trashing the odorous litter on the ground, Reborn began his _other_ business.

Namely that business he had with the Illusionist.

He walked into Shichi's room and looked around for the Illusionist. He found the Illusionist lying on the bed - or well, at least the Illusion of the Shichi lying on the bed. He didn't know where the Illusionist actually was because it was impossible to maintain Illusions when you were sleeping. The Illusionist had to be hiding somewhere, so Reborn had to smoke them out so that they could talk while Tsuna was distracted - he had grown somewhat tired of the charade they were pulling and wanted at least one honest conversation with them.

"Hey, wake up. I want to talk with you." and _miraculously_ , the Illusion of Shichi woke up, rubbing sleepily at his eyes. _Of course_ the Illusion of Shichi had to wake up at the _exact moment_ Reborn called for him. The Illusionist still found this fun, he imagined. Reborn found himself hating the Illusionist more and more - and began empathizing with him too. The Illusionist was a sadist, just like he was. He still wanted to have fun messing with Reborn, so he still wanted to keep up the charade with Reborn.

Reborn would have done the same thing if he was in the Illusionist's place. He was not a kind man.

Reborn jumped on Shichi's bed and sat down cross-legged. "Shichi" looked at him with uncomprehendingly bleary eyes after he had turned his head, looking like he didn't recognize Reborn. After a moment, though, he started, trying to sit up in his bed. He then proceeded to wince, and Reborn had to give the Illusionist props - creating fake Flame hemorrhage on "Shichi's body" was a rather smart thing to do, as the body hemorrhaged when it sent out too many Flames, especially at such a young age. Given the amount of Flames he had released, Flame hemorrhage was an inevitability for "Shichi".

"Ow… Reborn?" "Shichi" asked quietly, sounding pained as he did so. Reborn gave a noncommittal shrug.

"Well, have you read the book that I had assigned you" It was time to probe the depth of the Illusionist's knowledge - this was going to be a chore, either way.

"Oh, yeah, sort of. I had read up to the fourth chapter, then I got… bored." "Shichi" sounded recalcitrant. "Illusions are just so boring - I just think of any uses they might have." He finished off with a timid shrug.

… damn, was this guy good at mind games or what? He never thought that the Illusionist would do _this_ \- on one hand, he thought the Illusionist would show a large (but reasonable) capability of knowledge to Reborn, to show off, or exhibit complete ineptitude, torturing him with his sadistic tendencies. _This_ , just blatantly lying to him, _was genius_ …

Reborn took out a notepad, wrote down "Lie and look at their faces" on it with his Leon-pen, then noted the "confused" smirk on "Shichi's" face.

Reborn turned back to "Shichi". "Well, since you didn't read it, we won't be able to do any practicals. Read the last chapter so I can test you on your theoretical knowledge." "Shichi" pouted, then pulled out the book he had brought with him for the potential Mist Guardian (always be prepared) and flipped to a bookmarked page.

Once "Shichi" began to read, Reborn decided to check on Tsuna and secretly see how much he had cleaned his room. An hour hadn't passed yet, sure, but before he began reading his own "for pleasure" book, he decided that he should at least check on the boy.

As Reborn silently walked across the dirty carpet, he felt a shift in the air. It was probably the Illusionist, so he ignored it - his danger senses weren't tingling, for all they mattered. As he quietly closed the behind him, Reborn heard a voice, a high pitched voice that sounded nothing like Shichi.

"Well… wasn't that interesting." The voice came from inside the room, and Reborn smiled.

Now he had a voice, at the very least.

* * *

"Well… wasn't that interesting." Chishike smugly commented, smirking at me like he practically owned him. "Looks like Reborn thought that you should read it too."

"Of course Reborn thought that I should read it too, Chishiki, he gave it to me". I tiriedly explained. "Just let me read this in peace." I had decided to only refer to Chishiki by voice - it would make it a lot easier for me in general if Chishiki didn't comment on my every thought. This would hopefully make conversations a lot easier.

"Alright, Shichi, I'll let you read. And while I'll tone down it down, my comments are pretty much the only conversation I can make." Chishiki conceded.

"Works for me"

So I continued to read, Chishiki making some comments every couple of pages (instead of every couple of seconds, as he did before. Sometimes he made me wish I had a couple of earplugs). Illusions were still pretty boring - according to the book, they used the psychic power to "interfere and replicate stimuli" which means literally nothing to me. I still muscled through the fourth chapter of the book, learning as much as I could.

 **You've pushed your brains to the max: +1 INT**

Forty minutes later I had read through the chapter a couple of times. It still was rather fuzzy for me, but I should be able to figure out any questions that Reborn sends me. Right now, I think I have the theoretical aspects of Illusions down.

 **Objective 1 - Cleared!**

 **Request Complete! [Read the Book!]**

 **[Reborn] requests you to [Read the Book]**

 **Timed**

 **Objectives:**

 **Read the first four chapters -** ✔

 **SUCCESS**

Yaaaay… Now I won't lose 2 REP with Reborn, whatever REP is.

Just as I thought that Reborn came into the room, looking particularly smug and self-assured. I wonder what got him so happy and confident, but I hope it makes him judge me a little easier as a result.

 _Don't get your hopes up, Shichi. He looks serious nonetheless._

Reborn jumped on my bed and began staring at me. I didn't know what he was thinking but thought it best not to interrupt his staring. Eventually, Reborn blinked and spoke. "Well, Shichi - let's see what you've _learned_." He said "learned" with a strange inflection, almost as though he didn't quite believe it. He must have thought I didn't read the book.

 _Well, miraculously, you did._

He quickly sprang to my side, snatched the book he had given me, and backflipped to the foot of my bed. He flipped to the first page of the book and began to ask questions. At the beginning, they were simple questions, like "What is the power that you can use called?" or "How can one increase one's power?". They were simple questions with simple answers - I answered them with only a minimal amount of thought.

As we got to the later chapters, though, the questions increased with difficulty. I completely forgot the steps one had to do in order to access one's power, so I guessed (a deadly situation worked or me, right? That's probably how everyone accesses their powers.). Reborn gave me a deadly smile, and I got the strangest feeling that I had made a mistake.

 _Yup - I remember and I'm not telling you - you should have paid more attention when you read._

The questions pertaining (now that's a word I have no idea the meaning of) to Psychokinesis were even more difficult, as I had skimmed through that chapter. I knew how to use it, and demonstrated a bit of Psychokinesis to Reborn, who silently nodded. However, he looked disappointed when it came to the theoretical section. He made me read through it again and made sure I knew what I was able to use.

I failed miserably at the Illusions portion of the theoretical test, and Reborn made sure I knew that - his slaps can be quite painful. Soon enough, through some painful coaching (emphasis on painful) he dumbed down what was being said in the book to an understandable level. Apparently, interfering and replicating stimuli just meant stopping the person under Illusion from seeing the truth and giving the person under Illusion false sense - senses that you have had to experience before. Still boring, but at least it makes a degree of sense now.

Now that Reborn was satisfied with my progress academically, slaps aside, we began to practice the powers I could use. We spent fifteen minutes practicing with Psychokinesis, and I got the hang of using the power within me to move around objects. It was actually pretty neat, you know, moving things around like a ghost or something.

 _Hey, Shichi, imagine the things we can do with this power!_

Yeah, we can pull the _best_ pranks - wouldn't it be hilarious to see Miyazaki-sensei trip on nothing, like in the cartoons.

… _no, I was thinking more along the lines of it making spying on people easier_.

Why on Earth would we… oh yeah, you're a Monitalien - gathering intel is your job, isn't it?

Once we finished with Psychokinesis, we went onward to beginning to cast Illusions. This was… difficult, to say the least. I couldn't understand Reborn's instructions - he wasn't making them clear enough. He was telling me to imagine what I wanted Reborn to see and push it into his head with the power, but all I managed to do was knock around Reborn's head a bit with Psychokinesis. Reborn was looking peeved at that, and I tried even harder _not_ to accidentally hit him with the power.

After ten minutes of coaxing, I finally managed to get the image of an apple in front of Reborn where there was none before.

 **Skill Obtained!**

 **Illusions Lv(1/10) - 2%**

 **The ability to fool other's senses with Psychic Power**

 **Cost: Lv*Complexity of Illusion*Resistance of Victim*10**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 **AB: Cast Illusions**

 **PB: +(Lv/2)P to INT, WIS**

 **Skill Level Up!**

 **Mental Energy Manipulation - 1 → 2**

Of course, the Game had to remind me it existed. It was nice, you know, being able to go a couple of seconds without seeing another pop-up or panel, but no, the Game just _has_ to insert itself into everything, doesn't it?

 _Shichi, I can't believe you. You're nagging about the Game again, even though it's sent you into two M.A.D.s so far. Don't you learn anything?_

Chishiki, the M.A.D.s are exactly why I'm so mad. The people that run the Game can't take insults to their face, so they send me into a hell-dimension to get me to fear them. For once, I'd wish they would just talk to me face to face.

 _ **BEEP**_

As soon as I thought that, the world turned gray, and time stood still, and a ringing (or beeping) sound began. Reborn was frozen, his eyes blank while his mouth was stuck in an awkward position. I blanched - the Game was responding to what I had thought.

 _ **BEEP**_

 _ **BEEP**_

 _ **WOULD YOU LIKE TO TALK TO THE ADMINISTRATOR?**_

 _ **Y/N?**_

Chishiki… Do you have any ideas?

.

.

.

.

.

Chishiki?

… There was no response. I couldn't feel him at all. He wasn't resting or anything - his presence was simply gone. No amount of my mental prodding or searching could find him.

I turned back to the decision board. This wasn't something Chishiki could help me with.

This was something I had to do all on my own.

I shakily pressed the 'Y' button. The 'Yes button.

The world dissolved around me as I began freefalling. An ether began twisting around me, as I futilely tried to hold onto something to stop, or at the very least, slow down my dangerous fall. Luckily, I felt myself slowing down without having to hold on to anything, and I began to fear for my life a little less.

I gently landed in what appeared to be a firelit, European room. There was an antique rug on the hardwood floor, bookshelves lined the walls, and there were a couple of chairs resting by the crackling fire of the fireplace.

I cautiously stepped into the light. There appeared to be nobody in the room, which confused me. Wasn't I supposed to talk to some Administrator or something?

"Boo." With a slightly shrill scream I twisted around, Psychokinesis at arms… only to realize that my Psychokinesis was gone.

"Yeah, you can't use any powers when we're in here - don't want you to accidentally try and kill me." A young woman stepped out of the darkness. She looked to be in her mid-twenties and was wearing what looked to be loose and casual clothes. She flicked her brown hair out of her face. "Well, you wanted to talk, right?"

"Y-yeah." You know, I thought the Game itself was sentient - apparently, it was run by actual people.

We walked over to the fireplace and sat down in some armchairs. The Administrator sighed, then reached under the armchair and pulled out some soft drinks and juice. She opened a can of soft drink, took a long sip, then passed me my own can. I stared at it, not sure what to do with it. She laughed.

"You know, it's not poisonous or dirty or anything. It's safe to drink." Slowly I opened the can and drank some of it. It was nice, I guess.

She took another sip. "You know, it's impossible for that drink to be poisonous or dirty."

"Why?" The question slipped out of my mouth before I could stop myself.

"Because they were not programmed to be poisonous or dirty. My employees didn't program dirt, so there's no dirt. They didn't program poison, so there's no poison." She spread her arms. "This room is a simple thing really. Just a private place for me to get some tasty drinks and read my files in peace. Nothing is here that isn't supposed to be."

"How is that possible?" I asked aloud.

"Easy - just don't make dirt. Simple, really." She casually explained.

"B-but…" There was something wrong with this room. "Th-there has to be dirt…"

The Administrator was looked somewhat annoyed now. "My employees have complete control over this room - if I say there will be no dirt, there will be no dirt."

This was… mind-boggling. We were inside a space that somebody had complete control over. The Administrator, as if reading my thoughts, nodded. "This room has no concrete form. We can make it into whatever we want, just like we can with your universe."

My head snapped toward her as I considered what she just said. "You can do _whatever_ you want?"

The Administrator nodded. "Yeah. My boss told me that he wanted to you to play a Game, and he gave us some of the rules, so we set up the Game. It took a bit of time, but we finally launched it yesterday to coincide with the meeting between Tsunayoshi Sawada and Reborn."

… Oh. "Why me?"

"Boss adopted your universe from someone who didn't want it and decided to play around with it. He eventually decided on creating you, someone who would shake things up and make things a little bit more interesting. He looked at the time stream and put you into a specific place in time so you could be involved in some action, and made it so that you would have unique abilities so that you would actually matter."

… well.

"Boss decided you would have a Monitalien, which came from a different universe he had bought from the same guy. He decided to mash the universes together and created a universe with both canons - that's the terms for the main timeline, by the way. He took the soul of Nick Neumann, who was bored in Purgatory (the resting place for wayward souls without an afterlife) and suppressed his memories. He then put the near-blank soul and put it into a new body - your body."

… is this my origin story?

"He also decided that you would have Gamer powers, for some reason."

"... you know, I really think that this is just way too convoluted." I slowly remarked.

The Administrator chuckled. "Yeah, well, we thought so too. It took a bit of time, but just an hour ago we finally managed to sway him to tone it down a bit with his… _creativity_ … and maybe simplify things a little bit." She pulled out a notepad. "I can change some of your powers, like the Game or the Monitalien, because they haven't really impacted the story all that much"

Well, wasn't that a loaded question. "Can you make me smart or popular?"

The Administrator smiled. "Yes, but Boss won't hear of it - he wants an adventure and is willing to simplify your powers. He would never, oh I don't know, stop you and your brother from being Mafioso."

That's a bust, then.

Powers, then. Well, I have Chishiki, who, while annoying, I will _never_ let leave - I've grown too used to him and it would be the most painful thing I could imagine. He's a part of me, and I'm a part of him. Even now I feel nervous and anxious given that he's missing.

My Psychic Powers are cool - they don't harm me, at the very least, and I can do some neat things with them. The Neumann memories also feel like they're a part of me.

Really, the only thing I want to change is the Game. The constant pop-ups drive me insane and I can't even whine in my head without creating an M.A.D., the damned hellscape.

"Change the Game, would you?"

The Administrator nodded. "Oh yes, definitely. We have to simplify some things in there - Boss doesn't really know Game design all that well - he doesn't know how people work, period." She readied her notepad. "Tell us what you want to be changed, then."

Perfect. "No more pop-ups. They're annoying, and they get in the way of everything. They take too long to read and they're confusing. They drive me insane." I confessed

The Administrator nodded. "Got it - no more notifications and add in a tutorial."

I didn't say anything about a tutorial, but now that I thought about it, that would be a really, really good choice. "I also want you to get rid of the M.A.D.s - they're scary and I really don't see the point to them. I got into a lot of trouble yesterday because of M.A.D.s"

The Administrator sighed. "We're doing our best to block them, but it's not going well. Don't worry, we're doing our best."

I blinked. "I thought you had complete control over the Universe." You know, it just occurred to me that I'm talking to what is functionally God.

The Administrator shrugged. "We created the M.A.D., the Monster Assembly Dungeon, as a tool for generating Monsters."

"Why would you need Monsters?"

We would have implemented them later in the Game in a Gauntlet, a sort-of Boss Rush that would give you great prizes. Somehow, though, a glitch in the code causes them to spawn at random. We're thinking of reworking the Gauntlet entirely so we could erase the M.A.D.s entirely, but progress is slow.

"…wait, M.A.D. doesn't mean you guys are mad at me?"

The Administrator laughed. "Oh please, your insults are pathetic. 'Die in a hole'? Priceless. 'Source of all my problems'? Hilarious." I felt somewhat hurt, but also somewhat relieved. Apparently, they have thicker skin than I thought.

The Administrator stood up. "Do you have any other comments or suggestions?"

"No, not really." Now that I thought about it, the pop-ups were the things that annoyed me the most. Now that those are gone, the Game will probably be a whole lot more pleasant.

"Great, see you later. If you need anything, just ask us in your head, like you did earlier. Hopefully, we'll be able to respond."

"Oh, well, see you." The room began dimming around me. "Hang on, you never told me your name."

The Administrator smiled. "Maybe I'll tell it to you later. See you." The room completely disappeared.

* * *

With a start, I appeared back in my room. The room was still gray, but some color was seeping back into the room. In a snap time resumed and Reborn continued talking.

"... now that you've finally managed to work your Illusion, you should refine it, make the apple appear more lifelike. Do that for five more minutes, then go to sleep. It's getting late."

With that, Reborn left.

… now what?

 _Shichi, what happened. You have all of these new memories._ There was a pause in Chishiki's mental speech. _Hold on, let me look._

A couple of seconds passed. Then Chishiki appeared in his cat-form again.

"Wow… I just… wow." That summarily summed up my reaction to the events that occurred over the past hour. "Everything… Everything…"

"Everything seems different now, right?" We just had out worlds upended.

Chishiki was silent for the rest of the night. I refined my Illusions a little bit, managed to summon the image of an orange and a banana, and made my apple look more lifelike - anything to distract myself from the revelations. That would require some digesting.

I silently went to sleep and awaited the changes that would occur the following day.

* * *

Time for Some Reviews!

 **SnapDragon21 says:**

 **What the eff us the sh*t? This ain't no freaking humorous story, this is flipping bs.**  
 **Humor?... what humor?... this is effing child abuse!**  
 **And along with the generaly miserable occasion of children being forced to commit crimes by stupid cringe syndicates, this story had got to be one of the most miserable pieces of filth that I have ever read. And I am finding myself terribly hating Reborn, ask who condone crime need to burn for all eternity the flames of Hell. They shall purge all those who are wicked in their ways!... BURN!.!.!**

This review was written when the story was under the tag 'Humor'. Looking back on it, putting that tag on this story was premature and dumb - I can't write Humor in a million years. I got rid of that tag.

KHR generally ignores child abuse (see everything to do with Lambo), so Shichi being strong-armed into being a Mafioso isn't as new as you think it is. This is a problem with KHR rather than my own writings.

I wrote Reborn as a lot less soft than he is in KHR. Here, Reborn is a paranoid Mafioso that will stop at nothing to see his mission and goals, whatever they are, done. I imagine he's done a lot worse.

As for everything else... well, it was a laugh.

 **Hades. says:**

 **great chapter can't wait for more**

Thanks, I guess.

 **Valphrim says:**

 **Oh now this is interesting. Great first chapter. I hope to see more. Great job!**

Thanks, I guess.

See you later!


	4. A Tutorial and a Threat

_Chime!_

My eyes shot open - I immediately sat up. The pain from yesterday was completely gone for some reason, which I was incredibly thankful for. What was more important, however, was what woke me up.

 _Sh… Shichi?_ Chishiki's voice was bleary and sleepy as though he himself had just woken up. _Why is your mind so active right now? I'm the one who's supposed to wake up first, not you._

I paid him no attention, though, as I looked at the panel that appeared in front of me.

 **You had a full night's sleep. FP and MP fully restored.**

I thought I had told the administrator to turn off these annoying pop-ups.

 _You did, Shichi. I can see it in your memories, as clear as day - you had told them to turn down the number of pop-ups you received. They said that they would do it, too._

Then they lied to me, plain and simple.

 _No, Shichi, we have yet to actually see that. Don't go jumping to conclusions - maybe there is a reason the screen is here we don't know about that they have nothing to do with._

Hmph… I doubt it.

 _Oh, stop sulking. Anyway, we'll see how much they did to change it_.

Just as Chishiki said that another pop-up appeared, although this one was silent. I twitched, then decided that I wasn't going to get angry again - or at the very least, I wasn't going to blow up. That didn't seem to solve any problems, as far as I could tell.

 _That's the spirit!_

I decided to actually read the pop-up that the Game sent me.

 **Would you like to access the tutorial?**

 **Y/N?**

 _Ooh, ooh, a tutorial! Read it, Shichi, I want to know more. Maybe we can figure out how to actually play this Game without annoying ourselves or the administrator to death._

Always a bucket of sunshine, eh?

With a grin spreading across my face, I pressed the 'Y' button.

 **Tutorial accessed!**

 **Loading…**

 **Loading…**

 **Loading…**

After a couple seconds of patient waiting a larger screen appeared. Finally, some concrete information at last.

 **Welcome to the tutorial! We would like to apologize for the previous inconvenience you may have had with the Game. We are working hard to erase any issues with the system so that you may achieve maximum pleasure using our system.**

Well, at least they're aware they're the rudest people on Earth.

 _I can think of another rude person, and I can actually see him._

Buzz off, Chishiki. I don't barge into other people's lives without permission, at the very least.

 _You don't have to be rude, though…_

… shaddup.

 _Point._

The screen, once I read it, disappeared. Then another panel appeared, except this one had a long list of names on it.

 **Press the topic you would like to know more about:**

 **[Overworld]**

 **[Your View]**

 **[Information Page]**

 **[Statistics]**

 **[Traits]**

 **[Skills]**

 **[Training]**

 **[Combat]**

 **[Reputation]**

 **[Inventory]**

 **[Dungeons]**

 **[Crafting]**

 **[Quests]**

 **[Options]**

 _Wow, wow, Shichi, press all of them! Come on!_

I internally rolled my eyes. Chishiki was so impatient with these kinds of things. With an exasperated sigh, I pressed the first button - **[Overworld]**. As I pressed it another panel appeared. I decided to resign myself to reading for the foreseeable future. It would be a pain, though. Reading, for some reason, always was.

 **[Overworld]**

 **R &R means Rest and Relaxation. That's what you'll be doing here. The Overworld is the area outside of Dungeons and Combat. In the Overworld you won't be able to take damage, meaning you are technically indestructible. One might think that would make someone immortal as well, but don't worry - you'll die of old age if you don't die in combat. Take the opportunity to rest and recover from battles, or spend some time training to strengthen yourself up. Either way, it's the place you'll be spending the most amount of time in, so you best get used to it.**

 _So the Overworld is basically where we're in right now. Apparently, we can't be hurt when we're in here - hey, Shichi, test that. Hit yourself!_ Chishiki ordered me eagerly.

Several retorts and arguments formed in my mind but immediately solved themselves. While I could be harmed by doing this, the test would be very simple. Honestly, the majority of my arguments consisted of laziness.

So, after a moment's thought, I decided to bite a little bit of skin off of my lip. If I managed to tear my skin off with my teeth, I would be like I always was - not invincible. If I couldn't…

I grabbed a bit of my lip's skin and tried to tear a little bit off. However, it seems the Game was right - I was completely unable to rip the skin off of my teeth. It was a bit like gum, however, I somehow knew it would never snap.

 _This is so cool, Shichi - you can't be hurt anymore. I'll be with you for the rest of your natural life! I don't have to worry about an emergency transfer anymore, because you'll never reach that point..._

While Chishiki continued to blabber on about our fortuitous relationship, I considered my new powers. The fact that I was now virtually indestructible was kind of cool - I mean, I would never have to worry about cutting my hand cooking or accidentally poking my hand sewing or whatever.

It did feel a little strange, though. An indestructible body wasn't what I really wanted from this Game. I'm certainly grateful and all, but I can't really see the point of it.

Either way, it was time to press the next button - **[Your View]**. I pressed the button and its screen popped up.

 **[Your View]**

 **The world is as vast as the eyes can see. That's why we messed with your vision! The Game has modified your vision to suit your Gaming needs. Aside from the Notifications you receive on Gaming Panels, you have things you can see that no one else can see. Above people's heads, you can see their Level, Name, and Title. Use this information to your advantage. There are other things you can see with your powerful eyes, but they must be toggled in Options.**

 _Hey, Shichi, this is about the things you can see. The panels and pop-ups are called Notifications - remember that. It might come in handy later if you ever need to talk to the administrators again._

Even with Shichi's advice, I was still feeling annoyed. They wouldn't let up on the Notifications, huh. Even though I _explicitly_ told them to stop sending me the Notifications.

Well, either way, it says I can do something with them in Options, so I might as well look at that afterward.

I then pressed the third button, and another new screen popped up.

 **[Information Page]**

" **Know your enemies and know yourself, and you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles". So we gave you the tools to do that. Information Pages are screens which you can use to gather information about yourself and others. On Information Pages, you can view Statistics, Traits, Skills Reputations, Name, Title, Level, and so much more.**

 **To look at your own Information Page, command the Game to show you your Information Page. To see the Information Page of others, simply think 'Observe' toward who you want the Information Page of. Have fun learning!**

 _SHICHI, CALL FOR YOUR INFORMATION PAGE NOW!_ Chishiki shouted at me. I winced - he really had no idea how much that hurt me. _Sorry, Shichi, but I really, really, REALLY, want to see your Information Page - I want to know everything about you._

Chishiki, that's creepy… but fine.

Uh… Game? Can you show me my Information Page?

Once I thought that a green panel appeared in front of the Tutorial screen.

 **Shichi Sawada**

 **The Gamer, Vongola Descendent**

 **Level 6**

 **Flame: Lightning Primary, Mist Secondary**

 **Species: Human**

 **Age: 9**

 **HP: 900**

 **MP: 1800**

 **FP: 900**

 _Well… that didn't tell me as much information as I thought it would give. Honestly, I thought it would tell us a lot more than that._

Well, don't hold such high expectations, then. Of course it wouldn't tell us _that_ much.

 _Hmph…_ I could tell Chishiki was pouting, the big baby. _Well, what are the Flames, anyway. 'Lightning'? 'Mist'? What are they?_

They're probably what I used to kill the Somnharis and Hereharis, Chishiki. Anyway, we have to go to the next screen of the tutorial.

Willing the Information Page away, I summoned the next screen of the tutorial - **[Statistics]**

 **[Statistics]**

 **Not just a boring Maths class, Statistics is information in numerical form. In the Game, Statistics are numbers used to gauge your overall abilities. Quantities such as Strength and Intelligence are measured and put into numerical form for your leisure.**

 **Statistics are separated into two groups - those you can train and increase, and those you can't affect yourself. Trainable Statistics have to be trained - no more random awarding. Non-trainable Statistics are those you have to let grow by themselves.**

 **Statistics are viewable on Information Pages. To see Statistics, simply say "Wibbly-wobbly, Statistics are knobbly". Alternatively, you can command the Game to show you Statistics, much like you do to see Information Pages.**

… Chishiki, I know what you are thinking, and yes, I will show you my Statistics.

 _I knew I could count on you!_ Chishiki's voice was radiating happiness.

I summoned my Information Page again, this time summoning the Statistics page as well. I did _not_ say the strange chant, though. The administrators must think they're hilarious, huh. Shows what they know about humor.

 _ **Stats**_ **:**

 **Trainables**

 **Strength: 6**

 **Perception: 9**

 **Endurance: 6**

 **Intelligence: 11**

 **Agility: 7**

 **Dexterity: 10**

 **Non-trainables**

 **Wisdom: 7**

 **Effort: 9**

… Wow. If only I knew what these numbers actually meant. What does '6' mean? What does '9' mean? On what kind of a scale are these numbers on?

 _I'm the one that's supposed to ask these questions, Shichi. I think we'll get our answers, however, when we use 'Observe' on other people, and get their Statistics as well. We'll have a basis for comparison, then._

Fine, then. We'll look at these numbers once we've Observed some people and seen their numbers.

I pressed the fifth button - **[Traits]**

 **[Traits]**

 **What are some cool things about yourself? Come on, tell us… Fine, we'll learn it anyway. Traits are the interesting abilities you can use. Innate talents, useful gifts, you name it, it's a Trait. Traits have uses everywhere - so get as many as you can. Traits are awarded from Titles, and can only come from Titles. To get more Traits, get more Titles. After you have passed certain parameters you will be awarded Titles, so do as many things as you can.**

 **Like Statistics, Traits can be accessed from the Information Page and can be accessed in the same manner.**

 _You know what to do, Shichi. Summon the Information Page and let me see your Traits._

Say the magic word, Chishiki.

… _please?_

Fine. We're going to stop the tutorial after this - my butt's feeling rather painful right now.

With my mental command, the Information Page reappeared. I then commanded the Game to show me my Traits.

 _ **Traits**_ **:**

 **Gamer's Body:**

 **Granted by [Gamer], this Trait gives abnormal physiology to the user, giving a body similar to a Gamer. Skills have permanent progress and levels, users are able to access dungeons independently, body damage is combat-only.**

 **Gamer's Mind:**

 **Granted by [Gamer], this Trait gives abnormal mental physiology to the user, giving a mind similar to a Gamer. Skills have permanent progress and levels, users are able to see Gamer Panels. MP is at a set amount and regenerates fully every day**

 **Hyper Intuition:**

 **Granted by [Vongola Descendent], this Trait gives the ability to see through all to the user. Hyper Intuition will unconsciously warn the user of dangers, give the user heightened reflexes, and give the user insight into various situations.**

Chishiki didn't say anything, yet I could tell his mind was hard at work thinking about the Traits I had. I knew because it was what I was doing.

Gamer's Body was what gave me my indestructibility. My Skills had permanent progress and levels, meaning… what, exactly? I was able to access dungeons independently, whatever that meant, and damage to my body was combat only. I suppose that meant that I only was able to be hurt when I was in a fight, then. So much for invincibility.

Gamer's Mind was what allowed me to see the Gamer Panels. That _severely_ annoyed me. I didn't particularly like having to read - I was much more of a "gaming" person. However, I already knew about that. What was new was this 'MP' thing. I don't know what that is, though, so it doesn't matter to me right now.

Hyper Intuition… this was completely new. Of course, I have it because I also have Vongola Descendant, and I know next to nothing about the Mafia pickle I currently am in, so there's that. Still, being warned of dangers, while useless now that I am invincible outside of combat (which I don't plan on getting into), is somewhat nice. Maybe I'll use it to help others if I feel like it. Heightened reflexes sound like they will be incredibly useful in terms of sports, so I'm glad I have that. I don't know what 'insight' means to the Game, so I'll have to figure that out as I go.

Chishiki was still mulling things over, but my butt was feeling incredibly stiff from sitting in the bed for over a day (ignoring my meeting with the administrator). I got up and stretched. While I didn't feel any pain it was still immensely uncomfortable.

I walked out of my room. The house was quiet. I looked around and saw nobody around. Feeling a little disquieted I walked downstairs. Still, there was nobody. However, on the table in the kitchen, there was a note from Kaa-chan. It said that I needed to make myself some breakfast since Kaa-chan was going to be away for a little bit.

I quickly made a little bit of toast, then went out for a little walk. Stretching my legs would be for the best right now.

I could almost feel Chishiki solidify his opinions about my Traits. Well, he would have to wait until I felt ready to continue with the tutorial. Right now I needed to stretch my legs.

I headed out of my house and headed toward Namimori's local park. As I walked, nothing spectacular or very interesting happened - it was just a normal walk. Occasionally I passed by a person, and I saw their Level, Title, and Name above their heads, but I didn't pay much attention to them.

Then I came to the four-way intersection where I had encountered the Somnharis the other day, and my mood dipped a little bit. This was where I had first permanently activated my powers.

Then alarm bells immediately began ringing in my head, telling me to _dodge left NOW_! I instantly obeyed, diving to the ground in a split second. I reveled in the fact I had no scrapes because that was _still_ incredible.

Once I was safe on the ground and my danger senses were no longer tingling, I looked behind me. There was an attractive young lady with pink hair on a bicycle. Above her head was the following set of red words:

 **Bianchi**

 **The Poison Scorpion**

 **Level 13**

The Poison Scorpion, huh. What an interesting Title - I wonder what you have to do to get that.

"Oh! I'm so sorry, young boy. I was riding so fast that it was getting a little hard to stop myself." Bianchi hastily apologized, quickly getting off of her bike.

"No problem - I'm fine, as you can see," I explained, with a smile on my face

"Let me make it up to you." She pulled out a pack and tossed me a soft drink. "I'm volunteering at Namimori Middle to help the middle school girls bake, and brought some drinks for anybody who is thirsty. Have a drink - it'll make you feel better." She climbed back on her bike. "Well, I'll be seeing you soon. Cheers!" She rode away.

What a nice lady - helping out at the School in her free time.

 _Still, what was up with her Level? Her level was at 13, and our level is 6. She's over twice as strong as we are, but that makes no sense._

What do you mean, 'twice as strong as we are'?

 _Well, I've been thinking. Before we had two numbers - Level and Power, right? We don't know what Level was, but Power was how strong we were. Last I checked our Power was at 5, while our Level was at 8. Since we can't go backward because of the Gamer's abilities, our Level must have disappeared, while our Power became our Level. This accounts for the Power we must have gained while learning Illusions._

So you're saying that because Power became Level, and her Level is over twice as strong as ours is, her Power is twice as strong as ours is?

 _Yes!_

So what? What does it matter that her Power is so strong? I bet all the adults are like that.

 _If you remember, the last we checked your Power is the same as Kaa-chan's. Now it's even stronger than her Power._

A realization started creeping into me. If I'm stronger than Kaa-chan is, and Bianchi is twice as strong as I am, then Bianchi is well past double Kaa-chan's strength.

What does this mean?

 _I don't know, Shichi. I don't know._

Well, for now, it's just food for thought.

With a bit of pressure from my fingers, I opened the can of soft drink and brought it to my lips.

Then I immediately moved it away from my lips because my danger sense (which is probably Hyper Intuition, now that I think about it) was on fire.

A thick purple smoke began billowing from the opening of the can. I still felt some danger from it, so I threw it as far away as possible.

Dark purple liquid began pouring out of it as the fumes began to grow in size. Suddenly crows began to fall from the sky at awkward angles. Without a shadow of a doubt, I knew that the crows were dead.

 _Wha… What's happening, Shichi?_ Chishiki fearfully asked, but then became silent. He had read my mind, after all, and he knew the conclusion I had come to.

A Title of Poison Scorpion.

An inordinately high Level.

A foreign-sounding name.

And now this toxic can.

Bianchi was a Hitman (high Level, foreign name) - and she used poison as her weapon of choice, as the Poison Scorpion. She gave me that drink to kill me - probably because I'm related to Aniki. Now she's gone to… OH NO!

I quickly ran off in the direction Bianchi was heading, hoping to get there fast enough to save the middle schoolers from poisoning - that is, if I could.

* * *

I arrived at the school twelve minutes later. It would have been ten minutes, but I am seriously out of shape - I had to stop multiple times just to catch my breath so that I could continue. In all honesty, I thought that when on a heroic mission, heroes just apparently obtain the stamina to get where they need to be. The rules of the universe apparently don't bend _that_ easily.

 _Look who's talking, Mr. Invincible._

Anyway, I arrived at Namimori Middle School. I had to find where Bianchi was at and stop her… somehow.

 _She's twice as strong as you are, Shichi. How do you think you'll be able to stop her._

I'll figure out a way, Chishiki. Right now I have to get to where Bianchi is.

I ran through the hallways as quickly (and silently) as possible. I immediately went to the secretary of Namimori Middle School to ask where Bianchi was teaching. She immediately pointed me to class 1-A, which was the class Aniki was in. Now that I think of it, it's obvious in hindsight. I asked for directions, then immediately left.

I arrived at the door of class 1-A. Bianchi was nowhere in sight, but there was a large crowd of middle school girls attempting to give their cakes - which I could instantly tell were poisoned, though not to the same extent mine was (no fumes or smoke or anything, but my Hyper Intuition was insistent. I wasn't inclined to disagree with it). Some of the boys had already come forward to get their poisoned cakes.

I only could watch helplessly as they took their cakes. There was nothing I could do to stop them from eating - the cake was already heading toward their mouths. If only I could rip it out of their hands...

 _Why don't you?_

Because I… wait a second… Psychokinesis!

With a large mental tug, I pulled the plates away from them and dragged the cake out of their hands, then threw the cakes across the hallway. I began to pant with exertion because I was new to this entire endeavor of saving people.

 _Nice job, Shichi!_

Eyes were widened as the plates flew across the air. Then the shrieks came. Girls were screaming, throwing some of the plates in the air themselves (how sweet, helping me like this). The others were gripping theirs tightly, so theirs couldn't be thrown either (not so helpful). Soon the crowd dissolved into a panic, with everyone, boys and girls, running every which way. I lost sight of everything during the confusion.

After a minute had passed and most people had fled, I took a good look around. There were only four people left from the initial crowd. One of whom was Aniki, who looked at me in confusion once he saw me.

"S-shichi? What are you doing here?" Aniki asked, confused and worried.

The dark haired boy right next to him grinned. "Oh, so you're Tsuna's younger brother! Nice to meet you." His grin dampened somewhat. "Tsuna was so worried about you earlier."

I studied the boy who was talking to me. I had seen him around Namimori every now and again but hadn't taken a good look at him. Above his head were the following blue words:

 **Yamamoto Takeshi**

 **Local Baseball Star**

 **Level 9**

His level was incredibly high. Of course, it was nowhere near as high as Bianchi's ridiculous level, being closer to my level than hers, but it certainly higher than the Level 6 I had seen on Watanabe-san and Miyazaki-sensei.

"...Hello, Yamamoto-san. How are you today?" I replied, feeling nervous for some reason.

"Hey, what's this kid doing here?" A dark-haired girl came out from behind the door, holding a toxic slice of cake. "Which one of you monkeys brought a kid like this here?"

 _THROW IT SHICHI!_

My eyes zeroed in on the poisoned slice of cake. Without even thinking I grabbed it with psychic powers and threw it as far away as I could.

All eyes were on the cake as it flew through the air and out an open window.

The dark-haired girl's mouth opened, then began to back away in fear. "W-what are you?" I took the moment to study her and the words above her name in red:

 **Hana Kurokawa**

 **Middle School Student**

 **Level 5**

Suddenly I felt an ominous presence behind me. "Shichi Sawada…" I slowly turned around to see Bianchi, a giant poisoned wedding cake in her hand, fuming.

 _Run._ Chishiki was clear with his advice.

I took that as my ticket to bolt. I ran down the hallway as fast as I could, Bianchi hot on my heels. Then I bumped into someone and fell onto my back. I immediately got back up and prepared to run for my life again - Bianchi had almost caught up. But when I locked eyes with who I bumped into, I froze.

 **Hibari Kyoya**

 **Demon Prefect**

 **Level 18**

I began to sweat massively as I was stuck between two giants of destruction. Behind me was a hitman thirsting for my blood. In front of me was a demon that was inches away from killing me where I stood.

"Die, Shichi!" Bianchi had caught up to me and began throwing cake after cake at me. I don't know where she got them from, but then, as she grabbed me, I heard a bullet, and everything went black…

 **SHOWTIME!**

… for a second. Then I found myself in what looked like a circular arena. There was a ring of blue light about thirty-three meters in diameter. In the ring of blue light with me was Bianchi, who was as murderous as ever, although now she seemed confused as well.

I didn't care. A strange energy filled me as I brought my psychic power to bear and faced Bianchi. I had enough of her trying to murder everyone in the immediate vicinity, and was going to attack her until she was bleeding on the ground under my feet.

I would do it with my Dying Will.

I ran to her as fast as possible. She shook off her confusion and began throwing poisoned food at me. I ignored her attempts and ran straight through her attacks, not bothering to dodge. Finally, an inkling of fear showed on her face as she twisted her body to dodge.

It wasn't enough. I coated my fist in psychic energy and rammed it into Bianchi. The psychic energy I added to my punch sent Bianchi flying across the arena and across the blue line. A timer with ten seconds on it began counting down.

Bianchi got back up and stood, ready to face me. Or at least she thought she was ready to face me. I sprinted across the line and started throwing psychic punches at her.

She tried to defend herself from my relentless punches but to no avail.

Then the counter hit 0.

Everything turned black again, and I was back in the school. Everybody was scattered, and I could tell that everyone was confused as well, even Hibari, from out sudden appearance.

I could care less.

I immediately began punching Bianchi again, as another bullet cracked through the air. Suddenly I felt arms hugging me, trying to push me back away from Bianchi. I tried to use psychic power to push the person hugging me away, but it was completely unsuccessful.

Suddenly the rush of energy left me, and I felt a burning sensation deep within me. I could hear Chishiki distantly screaming inside my mind, but all I could think of was my own pain.

The person hugging me didn't stop hugging me, however, and soon began to crush me. A new pain began blossoming within me. I used psychokinetic power to loosen their grip. Unfortunately, it didn't work this time either and my vision soon began to dance, dark spots appearing. I wasn't being physically hurt anymore, that still remained, but the pain was still there.

Then the vice-grip on me loosened and I dropped to the floor, exhausted. I just laid there, tired. I just stopped caring.

* * *

Things cleared up after that. I found out that _Aniki,_ of all people, held me back from my murderous rampage. I don't know how he did it (he's Aniki, for God's sake. He would be unable to hurt a fly), but he did it. Aniki has a surprising amount of strength, then.

Yamamoto, Hana, and Kyoko (Aniki's crush who I hadn't noticed was there because she just sat there and _smiled_ through the whole ordeal) went to their home for the day. Afterward, I met Gokudera Hayato who had red words above his head.

 **Gokudera Hayato**

 **Smoking Bomb**

 **Level 12**

Apparently, Gokudera was Aniki's first subordinate (which seems like an alien concept to me). He profusely thanked me for saving Aniki, saying that he was sorry he was unable to protect Aniki and "his loyal brother". After he said his thanks, however, he resolutely stood by Aniki's side and began to sulk and give me a stink eye, however.

Hibari, after taking a bit of time to beat up Aniki for some reason (I'm pretty sure Hibari somehow blamed all of the chaos on Aniki), decided to leave claiming that he "despises crowds". Bianchi ran for the hills right after our impromptu battle.

Aniki and I decided to head home because both of us were tired beyond imagination. On the way back neither of us spoke - we didn't have anything to say, it seemed.

When we reached home we decided it would be best if we just went to our rooms - we didn't really want to talk about what had happened. I climbed into my bed then flopped down. In the distance, I could hear a child's laughter, Aniki's screams, and explosions, but for the life of me, I could honestly care less.

… _Sh-Shichi?_ Chishiki asked timidly, yet in pain.

What is it, Chishiki?

 _Please, never do that again. I was in so much pain, and I had to expend all of my energy to prevent myself from migrating._

What do you mean, 'migrating'?

 _Remember how I said yesterday how I die if you die?_

Faintly.

 _Well, my creators noticed this and put in a safety mechanism for me. If you ever reach a near-death state, my instincts will automatically make me transform and leave you to infect a nearby potential host._

What? What do you mean?

 _That weird mental state you were earlier pushed you to your absolute physical limits, by nearly killing you. My body had prepared itself to enter Bianchi, in the process killing you, so that I could save myself._

… You nearly _killed_ me so that you could transplant yourself onto a new host and save yourself?

 _Please don't be mad. It was completely instinctual - I held myself back as much as possible. Luckily it had ended after five minutes - I was able to keep a hold onto your body long enough for us to remain together._

So, basically, because I nearly died you were almost forced to abandon me through your instincts?

 _Yes. And I think the Flames hurt me as well - when they come from your head, at least. When you first used those Flames of yours I was far away from your hands, where they were being used. I felt a stinging sensation, but nothing serious. Same as when you used it in the M.A.D. with Reborn._

 _When you were forced to use it to fight Bianchi, though, I was put into excruciating pain. Both I and the Flame were in your head, which probably magnified the sensation._

So, basically, Flames are bad for you. Got it.

We were both quiet for some time, both of us just mulling over our thoughts.

 _Can we finish the tutorial?_ Chishiki finally said. _There were some things that occurred during our fight that made me curious. Most importantly, that circle of blue light and that countdown. That would have been in Combat, probably. We should finish the tutorial and figure out as much as possible._

… As much as I hate the reading these panels, Chishiki, you're probably right. Let's get this over with already.

 _You know, I've never understood your aversion to reading, Shichi. It's not that hard, after all._

I just don't like reading, Chishiki. Neumann enjoyed reading, but I'm not Neumann.

And with that, I summoned up the Tutorial Page I had dismissed earlier.

 **Press the topic you would like to know more about:**

 **[Overworld]**

 **[Your View]**

 **[Information Page]**

 **[Statistics]**

 **[Traits]**

 **[Skills]**

 **[Training]**

 **[Combat]**

 **[Reputation]**

 **[Inventory]**

 **[Dungeons]**

 **[Crafting]**

 **[Quests]**

 **[Options]**

Time for Skills, then.

 **[Skills]**

 **You can do anything - well, that's a** _ **bit**_ **of an exaggeration, but whatever. Skills are the thing you can do in the Overworld and in Combat. You have to gain Skills in the Overworld. Due to the obscene amount of Skills in the previous version - 'ability to** _ **play Music**_ **'? Really? - we've decided that Skills must have a fighting capability as well to qualify as being Skills. Like Statistics, Skills have to be trained in Training. However, this Training only applies to Combat. For it to apply in the Overworld, you must train your abilities normally.**

 **In the Skills menu, you may see your Skill name, your Proficiency Level, your progress to your next Level Up, a description of your Skill, and the Skill's Power, Cost, and Cooldown Time.**

 **You may view Skills like you view Traits and Statistics.**

 _Shichi, you know what to do._

Right.

With that, I summoned the Information Page, which was getting easier and easier, then went straight to summoning my Skills.

 _ **Skills**_ :

 **Psychokinesis - Lv1 - 93.5%**

 **The ability to manipulate objects with your mind**

 **Power: (Lv X body weight) max weight liftable**

 **Cost: 100 MP per object**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 **Illusions - Lv 1 - 43%**

 **The ability to fool other's senses with Psychic Power**

 **Power: Illusion Quality increases with Lv**

 **Cost: (10 X Lv) per Illusion**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 **Basic Flame Expulsion - Lv 1 - 90.4%**

 **The ability to release Flames from various parts of your body**

 **Power: Damage is FP, Safe Cap for Expulsion is at (100 x Lv)**

 **Cost: FP Used**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

Well, there are my Skills, Chishiki. How do you like them?

 _They look rather impressive, Shichi. We're going to have to look at these later - there are a lot of strange rules to this, I can already tell._

So we went to the next button in the line, **[Training]**.

 **[Training]**

 **With great power comes great responsibility, as well as a butt-ton of work involved. To increase your Statistics as well as your battle Skills, you need to Train. Training is a special mode where you can train your Statistics and Skills. By selecting a Training Mode you can access a special pocket dimension where facilities are given to you to train your abilities. It will take time and work to Train, however - so buckle up and get ready. To restrict you, we've decided that you may only train one Skill or Statistic per day. Choose Wisely!**

 **To access Training, you must be in the Overworld. It is accessed similarly to Statistics, Skills, and Traits - through mental command.**

Well, that's nice, I guess. I mean, it'll be great to improve my abilities and all, but I don't see myself using this anytime soon.

… _are you serious, Shichi. We're going to have to use this if we're going to survive in the Mafia. We can't train normally for battle - remember what the Skills page said? And if we can't gain Statistics normally we might need this to get smarter or stronger or any of the above._

All right, all right. We'll use this eventually, then.

 _We're going to see what it's like right now. If we can only train a single skill per day, then every day we miss is a day lost off of Training. We have to train right now._

Who made you the boss around here?

 _Just do it Shichi._

Fine, Fine. Calm down, won't you?

With that, I asked the Game to bring us into Training. Luckily the pain from the Flame mode I was in earlier today had mostly disappeared, so I felt energized enough to do this.

My bedroom disappeared around me, and soon I found myself in a white Limbo. I walked around for a little bit, trying to see if there was anything around here that I was missing, but no dice.

Suddenly a large Gamer panel popped into existence ten inches from my nose. I fell onto my butt and scrambled backward, my heart racing.

 **Select a Training Mode:**

 **[Statistics]**

 **[Skills]**

Chishiki, any advice on which one I should do?

… Chishiki?

There was no answer. Chishiki was completely silent - no, he wasn't silent, he was _gone_. Like my meeting with the administrator, I was completely alone. I was forced to make this choice all by myself.

Looking over the options, I considered my choices. Statistics or Skills, which one needs more work?

Well, I have no idea if my Statistics are good or not. Like Chishiki and I agreed earlier today I need to have a baseline to work off of to tell if I need to improve myself or not. I remembered we could get other people's Information Pages by using the Game to Observe. I'll have to try that out later on Aniki or Kaa-chan.

For now, though, Skills seem like the better idea. Combat abilities sound a lot more necessary in the Mafia than I thought they would be. I pressed the **[Skills]** button.

Another screen then popped up.

 **Select a skill to Train:**

 **Psychokinesis - Lv1 - 93.5%**

 **Illusions - Lv 1 - 43%**

 **Basic Flame Expulsion - Lv 1 - 90.4%**

I spared a second to think about which Skill I was going to Train. Illusions were immediately out - the Skill was nowhere close to a Level Up, at only 43% (I know how percentages work, thankfully. Neumann memories are so useful). It boiled down to Psychokinesis vs. Basic Flame Expulsion.

Psychokinesis was a useful move to be sure, and so was Flame Expulsion. Well, Flame Expulsion made Chishiki feel hurt, so maybe that wouldn't be the best idea. Additionally, Psychokinesis was at a higher percentage, so it would take a shorter time for a Level Up.

With that my choice was made. I pressed Psychokinesis and watched the panel disappear. Suddenly, a scarecrow appeared. It was connected to a metal railing which was fifteen meters long, which itself was connected to a wall that had also suddenly appeared. As I looked on in confusion, another panel popped up.

 **Psychokinesis Training!**

 **Use Psychokinesis! Blast the Scarecrow into the Wall to complete Level 1!**

A colored bar appeared in the corner of my vision. It was colored mostly green, except for a sliver that was colored black. That must have been my progress bar, then.

I face the Scarecrow and held out my hand. With some concentration, I started moving the Scarecrow across the rail. At the beginning of the rail the Scarecrow was moving quickly, and I expected it to hit the wall very quickly. However, as the Scarecrow moved along the rail it slowed down, encountering some resistance. I pushed hard, but one meter away from the wall it stopped.

I stopped exerting force on the Scarecrow, and it flew back all the way to the start of the rail.

This wasn't going to be easy.

Ten minutes later I had gotten somewhat closer. I had closed the distance a little bit, with only half of a meter left to the wall. At this point, I was beginning to loathe the Scarecrow.

Deciding that I would end this I gathered all of my strength and sent it to my palms. Then, with an almighty push, I sent it toward the Scarecrow.

The Scarecrow flew through the railing, slowing down as it went.

Five Meters…

Four Meters…

Three Meters…

Two Meters…

At the last meter, I pushed harder than ever, sweat dripping down my neck. With a soft tap, the Scarecrow hit the wall as the progress bar filled completely. I let go of the Scarecrow and it flew back as victory music chimed. All I felt was a painful sense of relief.

 **Congratulations!**

 **You have completed Psychokinesis - Lv 1**

 **Moving on to Psychokinesis - Lv 2**

The Scarecrow, railing, and wall disappeared. I wondered where they went - but not for long. Soon, something new appeared. A great big set of swings had appeared, with a Scarecrow on it as well as another wall. Then, out of the blue, a panel appeared.

 **Psychokinesis Training!**

 **Use Psychokinesis! Blast the Scarecrow on the Swings into the Wall to complete Level 2!**

So for another ten minutes, I tried to send the Scarecrow into the Wall. However, this was much, much different. The amount of force I needed to move the Scarecrow had exponentially grown, to the point of moving it half of a meter taking nearly all of my energy. I looked at the Progress bar. The Green Bar, unfortunately, hadn't gone very close to completion, which made me wonder how hard training was going to be, in all honesty.

I decided to call it quits for the day and asked the Game to send me back to my room. The Training Limbo dissolved around me and I flew through the air for a second, eventually landing back in my bed.

 _Shichi, what happened? I don't know where I was for a second - I wasn't connected to a host, which scared beyond anything I've ever known. Forget about it, I'll look into your memories._

As I began to situate myself back in my room, Chishiki rummaged around in my head.

 _Wow - you actually made some good choices when I wasn't around, Shichi. I'm actually impressed - you have awful judgment, usually._

Oh, be quiet.

I then brought up the tutorial screen again and prepared for the next button - **[Combat]**.

 **[Combat]**

 **You're the Best! Around! No one's ever going to keep you down! Combat is head-to-head fighting, the nitty and gritty of competition, and the thing you will probably do in the near future. In Combat, you and an opponent are placed into an arena. The arena will consist of a flat surface that has no blemishes or imperfections. Victory is attained when the opponent is dead or otherwise unable to fight. Combat may be escaped by one of the fighters being outside the boundaries of the arena for ten seconds.**

 **Combat is initiated by either touching a hostile character (your opponent) or touching a character having the intent to do harm.**

 _Well, Shichi, this explains why everything changed when Bianchi attacked you - she started Combat with you. You're lucky you kept her out of the arena long enough to get out of Combat. Someone would have probably died, otherwise._

Well, I probably wouldn't shed too many tears over Bianchi, anyway.

I pressed the next button - **[Reputation]**

 **[Reputation]**

 **Fame's a fickle friend, isn't it? Reputation is how other people and beings see you. If you have a higher Reputation with other people or beings, they like you better. If you have a lower Reputation with other people or beings, they like you worse. Reputation is scaled from -1000 to 1000. To raise Reputation, do things that please other people and make them like you more. To lower Reputation, do things that displease other people and make them like you less.**

 **To access your Reputation values, simply Observe other people, like you would to find out their Information Pages. Reputation is accessed similarly to Statistics, Traits, etc.**

 **-1000: Curse.**

 **These people devote their lives to ending yours. They will be willing to kill themselves if it means taking you down with them. Reputation is locked, have fun.**

 **-999 to -750: Loathe.**

 **These people wish you never existed. They will kill you if given the slightest chance. However, they aren't willing to go to the extremes of Cursed.**

 **-749 to -500: Hate.**

 **These people despise you. They wouldn't feel sad at all if you died in excruciating pain - heck, at lower numbers they might kill you themselves.**

 **-499 to -100: Dislike.**

 **These people prefer not to be with you. If you died, they would be somewhat happier, and they wish to have no interactions with you whatsoever. They wouldn't raise a finger to help you unless it helped them in some way.**

 **-99 to 99: Neutral.**

 **These people are ambivalent about your existence. They could care less about your existence and would help you only sometimes. Your presence does not matter to them very much - they could ignore you if they wanted to.**

 **100 to 499: Like**

 **These people enjoy your presence. They would be somewhat sad if you died and they will not mind social interactions with you. At lower numbers, they will only be your passing acquaintance. At higher numbers, they will be your friend**

 **500 to 750: Attached**

 **These people greatly enjoy your presence. They may be a best friend, a lover, or they may have a crush on you. They will look to propagate social interactions with you and would be miserable for a long time if you died.**

 **750 to 999: Love**

 **These people love you. They will think of you constantly and will propagate social interactions as much as possible with you. If you died, they would remember you fondly for the rest of their lives, even if they find another spouse.**

 **1000: Devotion**

 **You fill their world. You are their sole purpose for existing and you can never do any wrong in their eyes. They need social interactions with you to keep a sane mind. If you died, they would kill themselves to be with you, because their life is meaningless without you. Reputation is locked, have fun.**

Chishiki and I just looked at this panel for a very long time, because it was a _big_ panel. Reputation looked complicated, to say the least.

 _Not really all that complicated, Shichi. Just do nice things to people, raise their Reputation, and they'll like you more. And if you're mean they'll lower their Reputation and start to hate you._

… kind of simple when you put it that way. Actually, there's _no way_ that is the summarized version of what we just read.

 _You don't care either way, do you?_

No, I don't.

I swiped the panel away and brought out the list panel. I then selected the next button - **[Inventory]**

 **[Inventory]**

 **HAMMER TIME! Well, it's more 'Hammerspace'. Your Inventory is a hyper-dimensional infinite pocket of space-time. It can hold** _ **literally anything**_ **(to a point) and is accessible only by you. Items can only escape at your command, so use it wisely. Your Inventory can hold however many things you want it to, but only if you can lift it in your hands. It also has to stay relatively still before you can place it in your inventory. Objects in your Inventory stay in stasis, which means they leave how they were entered.**

 **To access your Inventory, use a mental command.**

Without Chishiki's prompting, I mentally called for the Inventory. A panel popped up, which had a series of white boxes in it. Nothing occurred for a few seconds, so I decided to experiment and touch the panel to see what would happen.

As my finger touched the panel ripples began to appear, spreading in a circular pattern from the tip of my finger. I withdrew my finger and watched the ripples slowly disappear. Emboldened, I stuck my hand completely through the panel.

It disappeared completely into the panel, ripples continuously forming around my wrist. My hand was suspended in a strange fluid, which felt a bit like water, except it wasn't very wet. I brought my hand back.

 _Shichi, try and put something into the panel - see what happens_ , Chishiki suggested. We both knew what was going to happen, but I obliged anyway.

Peering around my room I looked around for a suitable object to test the Inventory with. I decided to go with the book I studied from yesterday (because I didn't care much for it and Reborn probably had extras) and, grabbing it, placed it into the Inventory.

It completely submerged itself into the ether that was the Inventory space. As I removed my hand from the Inventory Space a picture of the book appeared in one of the spaces.

 _Huh. Neat._ Chishiki commented. I closed the Inventory panel with another mental command, then re-summoned it. The Book Icon was still there. I reached into the panel and felt around the inside of it for the book. I closed my fingers around the spine and pulled it out, making the Book  
Icon disappear as I did so.

… I can't really ever see myself using this.

I closed the panel, feeling a little bored, then opened the next button on the list panel - **[Dungeons]**

 **[Dungeons]**

 **You thought the cellar or attic was bad? Try one of these. Dungeons are special areas that distinct from the Overworld. They are monster-ridden places, with hostile enemies teeming and lurking around every corner. Dungeons, while seeming like like M.A.D.s, actually have a point - defeating enemies in Dungeons will net you some sweet goodies, and if you complete a Dungeon by defeating a certain amount of enemies and vanquishing the Dungeon's boss, you can get a fabulous prize.**

Now the Game is speaking my language. An actual reason to do stuff! Now the Game is finally making some sense.

 _How do you access these dungeons - and how do you escape?_ Chishiki butted in, raining on my parade.

Well, we'll figure it out, won't we? We've done everything before together, so we'll do this together as well.

As I spoke, I felt Chishiki's affection for me grow. Seems he really liked that.

 _Of course I liked that - at this rate, we might actually be able to use Sympathy._

Sympathy?

 _Sympathy is an ability of Monitaliens. By working with our hosts mutually we can get access to our powers - well, most can, but I can't, for some reason. Of course, none of my previous hosts were willing enough to work with me in the first place, across the millions and billions of years I've been alive, but either way, I've never been able to access my powers._

 _I've never really figured out how, too - judging from my knowledge of our design we're supposed to instinctively know how to use it when we first manifest physical form, but when I popped out two days ago I learned nothing._

Well, that's nice to know. Hey, maybe that can be a side-project we'll work on - you know, getting your powers to work. It would be nice if you could help me in Combat after all. Two heads are better than one.

 _Anyway, next button - we're reaching the end and it's getting kind of late._ Chishiki pointed out the setting sun. _We should probably finish this before dinner time._

Yeah - and hey, I've noticed you haven't taken physical form at all today.

Chishiki then proceeded to pop out of my chest. As I waited for him to say something Chishiki started moving across my chest, in strange patterns.

"Well, I'm still getting used to it, in all honesty. Using my own senses is a weird sensation, and actually being able to control my own actions is a _novel_ experience. I mean, I had the information before, but it feels _incredible_ …"

As Chishiki prattled on and on, I waited somewhat patiently. However my patience eventually wore thin and I forcefull coughed, snapping Chishiki out of his talkative trance.

"Oh, sorry. Either way, it'll take some time for me to get used to independent action, so I'll probably be staying in your head for the most part." He then popped back into my head. _Anyway, get back to the tutorial._

Righto. I summoned the panel and pressed the next button - **[Crafting]**. Thankfully, that was the third-to-last button, so I would soon be able to go and have some dinner, then fall asleep. I was feeling rather tired, after all.

 **[Crafting]**

 **Stitching, sculpting, shaping, and everything in-between. Crafting is the art of making something out of something else. Edible, non-edible, weapon or not, if you know how to make it and you have the materials necessary, you can make whatever you want. To craft, all you need are the materials necessary to craft and the knowledge of how to make it. There are an infinite amount of things you can craft, so get Crafting!**

 **Opening the Crafting menu works like everything else - I think you know the drill.**

So I opened the Crafting menu. A panel appeared, with a list of available recipes. I perused the list, looking for anything interesting. It mostly consisted of some hand-made projects I had made in school, as well as a couple of dishes I had seen Kaa-chan make around the house. However, at the very end, there were a couple of strange things. Designs for weapons and battleships, as well as some strange culinary food. I had never seen these before, so I was wondering what these were doing here.

 _Hey, I think these are things I know how to make._ I had forgotten that Chishiki was an information storehouse.

At the very end, however, was something that made my eyes widen.

 **[Monitalien]**

You can make your own kind?

 _Apparently - I've never really thought about it before, but yeah, I know how we're made._

I eagerly pressed on it - I wanted to see what Chishiki was made of.

 **To make a [Monitalien] you need:**

 **1 Flame crystal**

 **15 pounds of raw meat**

 **5 pounds of raw sugar**

 **1 pound fat**

 **500 MP**

 **500 FP**

… that's it?

 _Yeah - we're mass-produced, you know. We have to be easy to make and easily mobile for host-to-host transfer, so we're rather light. A lot of our complexity comes from the process of our creation, which they were able to automate._

Wow - hey, do you think I'll be able to make a Monitalien?

Chishiki was silent. I realized that the question may have been a little loaded and tried to mentally backtrack.

 _What? Oh, no, I'm not upset or offended or anything. I'm just considering your question._

The room and my mind were silent as Chishiki continued to ponder my question.

 _...well… it's possible. There are a lot of different types of Monitalien, but I know how to make all of them. Only a couple can live on Earth, though - Monitaliens were made to live on all kinds of planets, so they come in all shapes and sizes, with a large range of abilities. I'm a little bit more worried about how you would be able to keep it after you create it._

 _Monitaliens will immediately attach on to anything they deem a suitable host, so they would latch on to you at first sight. However, since you already have a Monitalien on you - me - I don't know what would happen._

Well, there's no reason to not experiment, anyway. We'll find a dog or a cat or something for the Monitalien to infect so that we'll be relatively safe.

 _Well, okay. Anyway, we need a 'Flame Crystal'. My information on that is sparse, so I don't know how I'm going to help you in that regard. We'll have to find that on our own before we can make a Monitalien._

Got it!

 _You know, sometimes you switch between being caustic and paranoid and bubbly and cheery, and you make absolutely no sense half the time. I still have yet to figure out why this occurs. Please stop it._

Resolutely ignoring Chishiki, which was an art not easily mastered, I swiped away the **[Crafting]** panel and pressed the second-to-last button, **[Quests]**

 **[Quests]**

 **Follow the yellow brick road, Follow the yellow brick road, Follow, follow, follow, follow, Follow the yellow brick road. Quests are the goals that others give you. When someone gives you a Quest, they are asking you to do something for them. Doing that something will give you Rewards. Quests are given only if you will receive rewards for doing them. For instance, giving a blind beggar some charity will not result in a Quest. However, someone telling you to get but some groceries for them for a pretty penny will result in a Quest.**

 **Quests can be toggled in Options.**

I'm not going to bother with this - except for the whole rewards thing, it's mostly the same. Chishiki, we've already figured out what's going on with Quests and Kaa-chan's going to call us down for dinner soon, so let's just finish the tutorial already.

… _fine._ Chishiki pouted petulantly. _We've learned a lot for today so we can overlook this one._

Glad to hear it.

I swiped the Quest panel away and brought out the list panel. I finally selected the **[Options]** panel, eager to end it.

 **[Options]**

 **Choices, choices, choices. If you aren't very satisfied by how the Game operates, look into the Options. Options allow you to change fundamental things with the Game. Want more or no Notifications? Use the Options Menu. Want to have a Map in the corner of your eye that will allow you to see Dungeons and fun events? Look into the Options Menu. Use the Options menu to ease yourself into the Game and give yourself the time of your life.**

 **You know the drill, so we're not going to waste precious space explaining to you how to access Options.**

 **That concludes the Tutorial. Have Fun!**

The panel disappeared with a pop, taking the list of buttons with it as well. It seemed the tutorial is over now, at last.

 _It looks like we have a little time before Kaa-chan calls us down for dinner, Shichi. Quick, open the Options menu and let's see what we can do. I know you didn't read it fully, but I did, and I think you'll be interested in what you can do with it._

Sure, let's finish this already. I opened the Options menu with a mental command. A panel popped up, with a list of buttons and switches on it.

 **Options Menu**

[Single Flame] **[Multi Flame]**

 **Events: [On]** [Off]

 **HUD:** [On] **[Off]**

 **Notifications: [On]** [Off]

 **Quests: [On]** [Off]

 **Unlimited Inventory: [On]** [Off]

Well, there was a lot to unpack.

 _Let's not touch Flames for now, Shichi. We'll ask Reborn about those later, but touching those could radically change a lot of things._

Okay, Okay…. What are 'Events' and what's a 'HUD'?

 _Ask the Game._

So I did

 **Events are special occurrences that can happen. These are opportunities you can use to improve yourself, with a little bit of work. Events are designed to spice up your life and give you something to keep you from getting too bored.**

 **The HUD is a Heads-Up Interface. It helps you keep track of your HP, MP, and FP, as well as providing you with a Map of your immediate surroundings for hostile people, Dungeons, and Events.**

We're keeping both, Chishiki. No arguments.

 _None whatsoever. This looks like it can only work to our advantage._

Events were already switched on, but HUD was switched off, so I switched in on. Three bars appeared in the top-left corner of my vision. One was a Red Bar, with my HP value under it. Another was a Blue Bar, with my MP value under it. There was also a Green Bar, with my FP value under it. A Map appeared in the top-right corner of my vision, with a green dot in the middle. That's probably where I was.

Cool.

I immediately flicked Notifications off, because I didn't want to see them at all, and I flicked Quests off as well. Both served to waste my time, so I didn't particularly care for them.

I did keep Unlimited Inventory, though, because that seemed useful.

"Tsu-kun! Shichi-kun! Dinner Time!" Kaa-chan's voice rang out. I got up off of the bed and immediately started heading down. Kaa-chan's dinner was the best, even though I didn't feel particularly hungry right now.

I headed downstairs and then froze.

Bianchi.

And some weird kid in a cow print suit, but mostly Bianchi.

"Hello, Shichi." She gazed at me. "Nice to see you."

NopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNopeNOPENOPENOPE.

I bolted back to my room.

Not dealing with that right now. I'm going to sleep.

I could hear Bianchi's' laughter behind me (as well as the weird cow print suit boy's obnoxious laughter ("GYAHAHAHAHA"), and somehow I felt my life wither inside me.

* * *

As Shichi was locking the door futilely and frantically behind him and Reborn was explaining his suspicions to a receptive Bianchi, Chief Laine Brick was waking up in the Solar System's ēlDLIVE station.

He yawned and rubbed his eyes, ready to start work for the day. Around him, other crew members were also slowly waking up.

He made himself a small breakfast, then began checking the systems around the station, making sure they were fully functional along with the rest of the crew.

Nothing seemed to be amiss that day, so Chief Brick was preparing for another day of catching intergalactic criminals. ēlDLIVE was the police force of él Civilization, the greater intergalactic community. They had stations all across the galaxy, as well as the other galaxies.

Luckily, patrolling was somewhat easy. The Mother Computer, the greatest super-intelligence in the known parts of the universe, was able to scan every single planet it governed continuously for any intergalactic criminals. They made his job incredibly easy and allowed the forces of ēlDLIVE to be spread out across the galaxy due to a lower need for patrols.

Then something went a little differently from usual.

"Chief! Incoming communication link from the Mother Computer." Maclane pressed a few buttons on the console. "Prepare yourself, Chief!"

Chief Brick started, then immediately made himself presentable with a comb that was lying about. Of course, the slime that was in it made him wonder who was using it before, but he had no time to worry about that. "Maclane, I'm ready. Connect to the Mother Computer immediately!"

"Yoyousa!" Maclane saluted in the ēlDLIVE manner, then connected to the Mother Computer.

* * *

Maclane looked on, considering what was happening with Chief Brick and the Mother Computer. He was not privy to these top-secret conversations. If he had any luck the Chief would tell him what the conversation was about, but only if he was allowed to know.

The Mother Computer sent a signal to him telling him that the Communication was over, and Maclane closed the link. He quickly turned to the Chief. "Chief Brick, what orders did you receive from the Mother Computer?"

Chief Brick sighed, and Maclane felt a strange sense of foreboding.

"We've received two long-term assignments, Maclane."

Maclane's eyes widened. Long-term assignments were something of a rarity. Most commands came down through a chain of processing from Mother Computer to the station, so most of their commands only were for small-timers taking refuge on Earth, which was considered a good place for criminals due to the abundant resources and lack of él Civilization's presence.

Of course, any serious criminals didn't really need those things to escape from the eyes of él Civilization, so they only got small-time criminals around these parts. Big criminals that needed a lot of time and effort to take down just didn't head here.

"Wh-what are we supposed to do, Chief? I-I mean, what are our assignments?"

"One is the recruitment of Chuuta Kokonose for the purposes of ēlDLIVE."

Maclane was confused. "Who is Chuuta Kokonose?"

"Chuuta Kokonose is a middle schooler at Shirobori Middle School. For the most part, he is fairly average, except for a little skill in Homemaking."

Maclane became even more confused. "Then why do we want him as a part of ēlDLIVE?"

"Because Chuuta is a host to a Monitalien."

Maclane gasped. Monitaliens were the rarest of aliens. Their ability to gather intelligence and process allowed for mass information gathering. The amount of information the Monitalien inside would hold, and the raw power they could use as a result…

Maclane gulped. "Alright, Chief. I can see why we're going to recruit him. But what about the other assignment?"

"The other assignment is also in regards to a Monitalien - a different one."

Maclane's eyes bugged out. "There are TWO Monitaliens in the Solar System?"

Chief Brick solemnly nodded. "Mother Computer had noticed them a while ago and was studying them intently."

"Well, are we going to recruit the other Monitalien as well?"

Chief Brick shook his head. "No - the exact opposite. The host of the other Monitalien is coming into contact with native criminal elements."

"What does that mean, Chief?"

"It means we're going to observe, and if necessary, eliminate, Shichi Sawada."

* * *

If you guys thought this was going to be a purely KHR fic, then you were wrong. I'm bringing Amano Akira's other work into this as well - ēlDLIVE. ēlDLIVE is another manga, more recent, that I suspect takes place in the same universe as KHR. Aside from cameos and the crossover Rebo to Dlive, I suspect that parts of the canon overlap - particularly, the aliens and the mechanisms of DYF and SPH. Since I'm fully revealing this as a crossover I switched this into the Crossover category. I've fooled you all - MWAHAHAHAHA!

* * *

Time for Some Reviews!

 **DragonClanMaster says:**

 **Illusionist... I thought he had lightning flames with a bit of psychic powers. Also, I find Reborn to be a bit too paranoid. Though you did a great job with his PoV.**

Thanks for the review. As for him having lightning Flames, I partially explained it with him having Mist Flames as well (like Gokudera having five usable flames). Although, with Mukuro being able to use Illusions without knowing what Dying Will Flames are in his and Tsuna's first fight makes me think Illusions aren't a Mist-specific ability. Heck, when Chrome first used Mist Flames in the future, adding them onto her Illusion, I thought that since they were added on they weren't there, to begin with.

As for Reborn, well, I imagine the Mafia won't make you too trusting.

 **Guest says:**

 **This is great. Please Madge mor soon.**

Don't worry, I'll madge as much as I can.

 **Inmsodiac says:**

 **Nice story. A bit unrefined yet but I like to see it continue.**

I try to refine my writing style constantly, and a beta would be appreciated. Are you offering?


	5. An Observation of a Dungeon

**Level Up!**

 **+1 Strength**

 **Illusions Level Up!**

* * *

I slowly opened the door to the house. I played a little bit in the playground today because I knew that Reborn would give me the homework I had missed on the days I was recovering, and I didn't really want to _do_ my homework.

 _Shichi, stop being so lazy. You're going to have to do the homework at some point, so now would be as good a time as any._

Yeah, but Reborn will make me suffer because of it, you know.

Chishiki was silent because he knew I was right - I knew _exactly_ what Reborn thought of me.

* * *

Apparently, locking a door is no longer a viable way for me to protect myself from intruders - after ten minutes or so, Bianchi entered my room. I scrambled backward, trying to protect myself from her. I didn't want to enter Combat either - she still had a higher level than me and I don't think I'll turn insanely powerful like that again (emphasis on insane).

Reborn jumped onto her shoulder - he seemed to be behind her before then - and locked eyes with me. "Say hello to Bianchi, Shichi. If I'm correct, I believe the two of you have met before." At my minute nod, he continued. "Excellent."

Reborn gestured to Bianchi. "Bianchi, as you may know, is a hitman that specializes in poisons and toxins. She came here from Italy, and I managed to convince her to teach you and Tsuna Home Ec and Art, so you two better behave." Reborn shot me a venomous smile - it didn't seem he was very fond of me.

"I look forward to working with you, Shichi-san." She performed a polite bow, her magenta hair falling forwards. "Pleased to make your acquaintance."

Chishiki, I don't trust this at _all_ \- she tried to murder me and a lot of other people.

 _Well, looking at the Map, we can see that she at least doesn't think of us as enemies._ Chishiki directed my attention from within me to the Map I had toggled fifteen minutes ago in the corner of my eye. With a flash I remembered the Map's capabilities - it could detect Events, Dungeons, and hostile people.

I immediately checked the Map, and sure enough, she didn't have any sign that she was hostile - her dot was green, like my dot and Reborn's dot.

 _Whatever Bianchi is, she doesn't want to kill us or hurt us_.

But that's really vague, Chishiki - I have no idea to what to expect from her then.

As I stared at Bianchi, conversing with Chishiki in my head, Bianchi decided that she wasn't going to wait for me any longer and got up, walking downstairs. Reborn soon followed suit.

 _Well, Shichi, do you have any method of ensuring you know about Bianchi?_ Chishiki bit out, annoyed.

… well, there is one thing.

 _What thing?_ Chishiki flew into my mind to see what I was talking about. _Oh, Observe! I completely forgot about that - nice job on remembering, Shichi!_

Yep - the Observe will be able to tell me a lot of things about Bianchi, like her Stats, her Skills, her Traits, and her Reputation with me.

 _Well, fire away._

We then noticed that Reborn and Bianchi had left my room a few minutes earlier. I decided to go down - with a lot of caution, of course.

Stepping down the stairs gingerly I make my way to the dinner table. Upon seeing me, Kaa-chan dimpled.

"Ah, Shichi-kun, I was so worried when you went up back to your room so quickly. Don't do that again, please." With that, she went back to dolloping our curry onto plates.

Bianchi was sitting at the dinner table for some reason - it made things easier for my Observe, for sure, but confused me slightly. Wasn't she going to go to wherever her home was?

Ignoring Reborn's burning stare that I was peripherally aware of, I used Observe on Bianchi, with a mental command.

 **Bianchi**

 **The Poison Scorpion**

 **Level 13**

 **Flame: Storm Primary**

 **Species: Human**

 **Age: 17**

 **HP: 1700**

 **MP: 2200**

 **FP: 1300**

 _ **Stats**_ **:**

 **Trainables**

 **Strength: 10**

 **Perception: 11**

 **Endurance: 10**

 **Intelligence: 12**

 **Agility: 11**

 **Dexterity: 12**

 **Non-trainables**

 **Wisdom: 10**

 **Effort: 13**

 _ **Traits**_ **:**

 **Poison Touch:**

 **Granted by [The Poison Scorpion], this Trait gives the user the ability to turn anything they touch toxic. However, this comes at a cost of turning any edibles created by the user toxic as well.**

 _ **Skills**_ :

 **Poison Fling - Lv 4**

 **The ability to throw Toxic objects at people without suffering any Poison Damage.**

 **Power: (Lv * 100) damage per minute upon contact**

 **Cost: Usability of Food Items**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 _ **Reputation:**_

 **-105 (Dislike)**

 **Bianchi is a Professional Hitman from Italy, known as the Poison Scorpion for her frightening abilities with toxic foods. While she is a freelancer for the Vongola, the majority of her loyalty belongs to Reborn, with whom she is in love. Bianchi is currently working for Reborn to aid the next generation of the Vongola, albeit grudgingly, staying at the house of the Vongola.**

 **Bianchi dislikes Shichi Sawada and Tsunayoshi Sawada because of their need for training preventing her and Reborn from living a glamorous lifestyle.**

Well… that was a lot to unpack.

 _Let's start from the top, then. Bianchi is seventeen years old and has more HP, MP, and FP than us. None of her Stats dip below 10, which might be expected in the Mafia. The combination of Poison Touch and Poison Fling looks like a dangerous combination to me - it's probably her fighting style._

While that's interesting and all, her abilities aren't the important thing here. It looks like the only thing holding her back from killing us both is the fact that Reborn told her not to - Bianchi is a hitman, she has probably killed for less.

 _Let's not irritate Reborn, then - basically, same plan as before._

Urgh… she's also staying at our house. Kaa-chan's probably going to allow her to use one of the spare rooms that we have, then.

Kaa-chan passed around the plates with steaming curry on them. Once I got my plate, I blew on it a little bit before eating. As I chewed, I looked around at the table - Bianchi was deftly eating her curry, looking slightly miserable. Reborn was cheerfully eating his food, smiling cruelly in my face. Aniki was pale as he ate his food - he was probably as worried as I was about Bianchi. Kaa-chan was oblivious to the dynamics of the table completely.

"GYAHAHA! THIS CURRY IS DELICIOUS!"

With a start, I looked to my side. There sitting on a chair next to me, was a strange kid in cow print spandex shouting at the top of his lungs. Atop a head with large green eyes sat a gargantuan afro and a set of words in green.

 **Lambo Bovino**

 **Lightning Rod**

 **Level 6**

I was stunned by Lambo's loudness. This kid did _not_ know how to tone down his voice. I blankly stared at Lambo, who wolfed down his curry with a rabid enthusiasm.

"Oh, Lambo-san, I'm glad you liked it so much!" I began to stare at Kaa-chan instead - she was _okay_ with a random kid coming into our house and eating our food? "Since you are going to be staying here from now on, you should eat as much as you want."

I felt like I slipped out of reality. "Kaa-chan… are you okay?" Kaa-chan was acting really weird - she was letting _way_ too many people freeload at our house. This _wasn't_ normal.

Kaa-chan smiled a creepy smile at me. "Of course I'm okay Shichi - why wouldn't I be?"

"Reborn, what did you do to Kaa-chan?" I asked him quietly.

Reborn smiled, creeping me out. "Oh, nothing."

…

 _Well, Reborn's drugging Kaa-chan._

Damn it… I fired off an Observe toward Kaa-chan, just to make sure.

 **Nana Sawada**

 **Content Housewife**

 **Level 5**

 **Flame: Lightning Primary, Mist Secondary**

 **Species: Human**

 **Age: 34**

 **HP: 3000**

 **MP: 1200**

 **FP: 800**

 _ **Stats**_ **:**

 **Trainables**

 **Strength: 7**

 **Perception: 5**

 **Endurance: 7**

 **Intelligence: 7**

 **Agility: 8**

 **Dexterity: 11**

 **Non-trainables**

 **Wisdom: 5**

 **Effort: 8**

 _ **Traits**_ **:**

 **None**

 _ **Skills**_ :

 **None**

 _ **Reputation:**_

 **610 (Attached)**

 **Nana Sawada is a housewife. Married to Iemitsu Sawada, she spends most of her time cleaning, shopping, cooking, and taking care of her kids. Because of a tragic incident in the past involving a dangerous cocktail of chemicals and drugs, she lost most of her critical thinking capabilities and runs mostly on auto-pilot.**

 **Nana is attached to Shichi Sawada because of Shichi being her second son. While thinking he is a bit strange sometimes, she genuinely cares for him and takes care of him.**

 _Well, at the very least Reborn isn't drugging her._

Yeah - instead, she can't form an intelligent thought.

I studied Kaa-chan's Stats - she had more HP than Bianchi and was smaller than me in MP. She had more FP than me, though.

Her other Stats were lower than mine as well, except for Strength, Agility, and Effort.

I decided to throw a couple of Observes to everyone else in the room as well - you know, to get all of the information.

 **Tsunayoshi Sawada**

 **Vongola Descendant**

 **Level 5**

 **Flame: Sky Primary**

 **Species: Human**

 **Age: 14**

 **HP: 1400**

 **MP: 1700**

 **FP: 1000**

 _ **Stats**_ **:**

 **Trainables**

 **Strength: 7**

 **Perception: 12**

 **Endurance: 7**

 **Intelligence: 7**

 **Agility: 8**

 **Dexterity: 9**

 **Non-trainables**

 **Wisdom: 10**

 **Effort: 10**

 _ **Traits**_ **:**

 **Hyper Intuition:**

 **Granted by [Vongola Descendent], this Trait gives the ability to see through all to the user. Hyper Intuition will unconsciously warn the user of dangers, give the user heightened reflexes, and give the user insight into various situations.**

 _ **Skills**_ :

 **None**

 _ **Reputation:**_

 **550 (Attached)**

 **Tsunayoshi Sawada is a candidate to the seat of Vongola Decimo. Descended by birth from Vongola Primo, he is the one Vongola Nono has deemed worthy of becoming the next boss. Regardless, Tsuna is meek, weak, and rather stupid, needing to go through a regiment of training before he is capable of becoming the next Vongola Boss.**

 **Tsuna is attached to Shichi Sawada because of Shichi being his brother. While Tsuna can be slightly jealous of Shichi at times, for the most part, Tsuna loves him.**

Well, that's nothing new, aside from the whole Hyper Intuition thing. I already knew that Aniki was jealous of me - I mean, I wasn't exactly popular, intelligent, or athletic, but Aniki was the bottom of the barrel when it came to those things.

 _Hey, Shichi, I think I've realized something. HP is proportional to your age - you're 9 and have an HP of 900, Aniki is 14 and have an HP of 1400, and Bianchi is 17, with an HP of 1700._

As I chewed my curry silently and Lambo laughed and ate his food next to me, I checked the Information Pages. What Chishiki said held true, except for Kaa-chan, who was 34 with an HP of 3000.

 _Maybe she has an HP cap or something?_

I opened up Reborn's Information Page in response.

 **Reborn**

 **Home Tutor Hitman, Sun Arcobaleno**

 **Level 50**

 **Flame: Sun Primary**

 **Species: Human**

 **Age: 1**

 **HP: 100**

 **MP: 3300**

 **FP: 1200**

 _ **Stats**_ **:**

 **Trainables**

 **Strength: 15**

 **Perception: 16**

 **Endurance: 14**

 **Intelligence: 18**

 **Agility: 12**

 **Dexterity: 19**

 **Non-trainables**

 **Wisdom: 15**

 **Effort: 12**

 _ **Traits**_ **:**

 **Cursed Body:**

 **Granted by [Sun Arcobaleno], this Trait reverts the user's body to an infantile state, reducing their Age to 1 permanently and limiting their usable powers. In return, a reliable external source of FP is created.**

 _ **Skills**_ :

 **Basic Flame Expulsion - Lv 2**

 **The ability to release Flames from various parts of your body**

 **Power: Damage is FP, Safe Cap for Expulsion is at (100 x Lv)**

 **Cost: FP Used**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 **Chaos Shot - Lv 7**

 **The ability to fire Sun Flames from a gun, which multiply and home in on targets**

 **Power: (Lv*10) damage per shot, can multiply (Lv) times**

 **Cost: (Lv*10) FP per shot**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 **Telepathy - Lv 4**

 **The ability to enter the minds of your targets, predicting their actions**

 **Power: N/A**

 **Cost: (Lv*10) MP per second**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 ***Caution***

 **Power may not be used on those with Gamer's Mind**

 _ **Reputation:**_

 **10 (Neutral)**

 **Reborn is a Professional Hitman from Italy. Hired by Nono, he is extremely capable and does not shy away from any sort of murder and bloodshed. One of the Strongest Seven, he is powerful and feared. He is currently on a mission from Vongola Nono to train Vongola Decimo so that he may be his successor.**

 **Reborn is ambivalent toward Shichi Sawada, thinking that while Shichi, who he believes to be an unnamed Illusionist impostor, is a good candidate to be a Mist Guardian, he is untrustworthy.**

…

 _Wow,_ Chishiki mentally whistled. _That's… impressive._

Reborn, despite being only an infant, was _that_ strong. His strength dwarfed Bianchi by an incredibly large amount and dwarfed mine by an even larger amount. He could kill me in the blink of an eye if he so wished.

He was an infant, at one-year-old, and his HP was 100 accordingly. However, his MP and FP stats were off the charts.

Speaking of MP and FP, do you have any idea how they're calculated, Chishiki?

 _I have some theories. MP is probably a multiple of 100 like HP is. However, in every Information page we've seen, the number you have to multiply by 100 to get the MP stat is bigger than any of the other stats. I think that it might be a combination of two stats._

 _FP, though, is probably only one stat - and I think that stat is Effort. The letters match up slightly, and it seems to hold true for all of the Information Pages I've seen so far._

Thanks for those deductions, Chishiki.

 _Always happy to be of service, Shichi_.

I kept on looking down Reborn's fascinating Information Page out of the corner of my eye. He apparently had a Cursed Body, which reduced his Age to 1.

 _That's probably why he's so strong for an infant, Shichi - he's actually a lot older and stronger, but he was forced to regress to a baby._

The Cursed Body Trait was granted by the Sun Arcobaleno Title, so if there are any other Sun Arcobalenos like him, they might also have regressed bodies too.

 _Something of note, Shichi - his 'flame' is also Sun. That might be a reason why he's a Sun Arcobaleno._

Good point.

I looked at Reborn's Skills. He had something called "Chaos Shot", which allowed him to fire Sun Flames from his gun.

 _Sun Flames? This feels connected, somehow_.

Anyway, I continued looking at the Skills. Reborn had Basic Flame Expulsion, like I did, except he was at a higher level than I was for it. He also had Telepathy…

… wait, what?

Reborn can read minds?

 _Enter minds, Shichi. I've been in heads long enough to know that a mind is never as simple as pages in a book, Shichi. Mental Communication is only one aspect of it._

You think I can enter minds?

 _Probably. You have the potential, sure, but I think you'll need to get used to your powers first before you can do something as delicate as that - Telepathy requires a lot of refinement._

Can you do Telepathy?

 _In a short range, yes._

I wondered what Chishiki's information page would look like. He was kind of strange, and he was an alien - would he have a Flame Type.

 _We'll get around to testing it eventually, Shichi_.

After looking at Reborn's Skills I looked at his Reputation with me and his description. He had a positive Reputation with me (thankfully) so I don't think he'll assassinate me any time soon. His description was interesting but altogether unsurprising. He was one of the Strongest Seven too, whatever that meant.

However, looking at what he thought of me, I froze up a little bit.

 _He still thinks you're an impostor? But… why would he give us the books and teach us, then?_

Maybe he wants us to think that we have successfully tricked him, then?

 _This is so confusing…_

I realized why Reborn was continuously smirking at me, then - he thought that I was trying my hardest not to be detected by everyone. He thought he had me all figured out, and instead he was as far from the truth as possible.

Although, why doesn't he just use Telepathy on me, then?

 _You have Gamer's Mind, remember? He can't enter your mind._

Well, that's… convenient?

 _It really isn't, Shichi. Now he has a reason not to trust us - he can't enter our mind._

I closed Reborn's Information Page, feeling slightly sick. The only reason Reborn was keeping me alive was that I was a good candidate to be a 'Mist Guardian' - and I was starting to feel a little annoyed at all of these unfamiliar terms. Hopefully, they'll be explained with time.

 _Anyway, look at Lambo - I want to see his Information Page._

Alright, Chishiki.

With a command, I opened the Information Page. I also read it quickly - dinner was winding down to a close and Aniki had already left the table and ran for his room.

 **Lambo Bovino**

 **Lightning Rod**

 **Level 6**

 **Flame: Lightning Primary**

 **Species: Human**

 **Age: 5**

 **HP: 500**

 **MP: 500**

 **FP: 700**

 _ **Stats**_ **:**

 **Trainables**

 **Strength: 4**

 **Perception: 2**

 **Endurance: 6**

 **Intelligence: 3**

 **Agility: 5**

 **Dexterity: 6**

 **Non-trainables**

 **Wisdom: 2**

 **Effort: 7**

 _ **Traits**_ **:**

 **Elettrico Cuoio:**

 **Granted by [Lightning Rod], this Trait increases the electrical conductivity of the user's skin, allowing for easier redirection of electricity. Users can take larger blasts of electricity and lose less health by the end of it.**

 _ **Skills**_ :

 **N/A**

 _ **Reputation:**_

 **5 (Neutral)**

 **Lambo is a Professional Hitman from Italy. Ordered by his Boss to kill Reborn, he is relentless in the usage of his arsenal. However, as a five-year-old, he is nowhere near competent enough to actually be anywhere close to effective. As a result, he spends most of his time futilely attacking Reborn, never making any headway. He currently resides with the Sawadas, owing to his need for a place to stay while he plots to kill Reborn.**

 **Lambo is only tangentially aware of Shichi's existence.**

Lambo is a professional hitman?

Said 'professional hitman' was busy chugging down food like there was no tomorrow, rice and curry smeared on his mouth as he alternated gulping down food and breathing.

 _We never found out what the standards are for being a hitman, Shichi. The standards might be a lot more achievable than we thought._

For the most part, Lambo had the stats of a normal five-year-old, or well, what I imagine the stats of a five-year-old would be. He was lowering than me in all areas except for Endurance, where we were equal.

He had no Skills, and had lower HP, MP, and FP…

… but how was he the same Level as I was?

 _What I'm more interested in is Elettrico Cuoio - specifically, how on Earth it actually works?_

What do you mean, Chishiki?

 _Look, Shichi, when is it more dangerous to touch live electricity - when you have dry skin, or when you have wet skin?_

Wet skin, definitely.

 _Right, and why is it more dangerous?_

I brought up my Neumann memories, which were thankfully useful.

The danger of electrocution came from the current running through your body - the larger the current, the more severe the damage in the body.

According to Ohm's law, the voltage (V) in a circuit - the circuit being the combination of the water and your body - was proportional to the resistance (R) of the circuit, across a certain strength of the current (I).

I=V/R, in other words.

 _Go on…_

Rearranging that you get R*I=V, meaning that the resistance and size of the current were inversely proportional to a certain voltage. If you lowered the current, you would have to increase the resistance to keep the same voltage, and vice versa.

Since in this scenario the voltage was the same, with it being the same amount of electricity passing through you, the current was different only because of the different resistances.

Since water was more conductive it would have less resistance, increasing the current to keep with the law. The increased current would run through the body, causing burns due to the internal organ's innate resistance to electricity transferring the electricity into heat. Not to mention what would happen with the body's bioelectricity.

 _Great - now apply that to Elettrico Cuoio._

What do you mean?

 _What does Elettrico Cuoio do again?_

It increases the… electrical conductivity of the skin… oh.

 _Right - you've got it now._

Elettrico Cuoio increased the conductivity of the skin - the Game claimed that it would help the redirection of electricity, but all it would be is a really wet skin. The danger would _increase_ , not decrease.

 _This makes no sense… we should look into this more, Shichi._

Yeah, good idea Chishiki.

I then noticed something about Lambo's Flame. It was Lightning. On a spur of inspiration, I brought up my own Information Page and looked at my Flame. It was Lightning, like Kaa-chan's and Lambo's.

 _Hey look, you all have the same Flame type._

But that wasn't what I was interested in. I looked at the words above our heads, and Kaa-chan's, Lambo's, and my words were all green.

 _You think there is some connection?_

Maybe - but we're going to have to look at some more people to be sure.

And with that, I finished my food and headed up for the night.

* * *

That night, among other things, I had learned of Reborn's true view of me. I also realized that he was trying to toy with me by giving me all of these weak exercises - he was playing the game he thought I was playing.

It wasn't pleasant.

Unfortunately, I had reached home by then. The lights in the kitchen were on, as well as the lights in Aniki's room. I entered, looking to head straight into my room so I could avoid Reborn.

Bianchi was staying in the living room, relaxing. I decided to pay her as little mind as possible so that I wouldn't have to have an unnecessary conflict with her.

As I was passing Aniki's room, I heard several loud voices and began to feel Chishiki's burning curiosity. Wanting to stop it before he started nagging me I headed to the door so I (and by proxy he) could listen. I heard a humming sound behind the slightly ajar door.

"... he teaches mathematics at a university" a strange unknown female voice.

"Well then, you should have called him first," Aniki exasperatedly replied. It honestly sounded like they were doing homework.

"I'm not surprised that you kids couldn't solve this problem," a third voice rang out. "It's a complex university-level problem."

 _Ooh, Shichi, let's listen in._ Chishiki piped up. I ignored him since that was exactly what I was doing already.

"University-level?" Aniki explained, alarmed.

"The answer is that it can't be solved, because it would never happen." A trick question, then?

"Really?" Aniki asked, alarmed.

"You can't trust a university professor?" That was a … weird thing to say. Instead of actually explaining it he went full-on "I-am-smarter-than-thou".

"Well, why don't we let someone else take their turn at it, then?" I froze - that was Reborn. "Come on in, Shichi."

Well, there goes avoiding Reborn.

I fully opened the door to Aniki's room and stepped in. Aside from Aniki and Reborn, Yamamoto was in the room as well.

I had read his Information Page, as well as Gokudera's (who was currently napping on Aniki's bed with Lambo) yesterday, when they came to visit. Yamamoto, a Rain Flame, was about as average as a person could get - no strange superpowers or magical lineages. Aside from a disposition to baseball, he was normal. The only reason he liked me, apparently, was because I was Aniki's brother.

Gokudera, meanwhile, was a bit more interesting. Apparently, he had fledgling Pyrokinesis, which he used to light his Dynamite (that was a bit of a shocker - both Pyrokinesis and the Dynamite). He had a semi-tragic backstory, complete with a dying mother, a traumatic childhood, and Mafia training. He apparently felt like he had to compete with me for Aniki's attention.

He was a bit nuttier, alright.

There was a strange brunette in here as well, who was staring at me with stars in her eyes. Above her head was a set of green words:

 **Haru Miura**

 **Middle School Student**

 **Level 4**

A quick Observe and I found that Haru was a fourteen-year-old girl, with a Lightning Flame (furthering Chishiki's and my little hypothesis), who had somewhat low stats except for a high Intelligence and had no Traits or Skills whatsoever. She was apparently a child-lover, which was … nice, I guess.

She liked me solely for the fact that I was a child, which bit a little.

The man next to her, which I assumed was her father, was also Observed. He was so boring, however, that I stopped halfway.

"Hahi? Who are you?" Haru asked, tilting her head.

Aniki was quick to explain. "Shichi is my little brother - but Reborn, he isn't that smart!" Aniki was quick to say, and I felt a little insulted - _Aniki_ of all people was telling me this? The guy who never got above a 75 in his life?

"Are you that smart, Dame-Tsuna?" Reborn, of course, had a rebuke ready, which promptly shut him up. "Anyway, take a look at Problem 7, Shichi."

Ignoring Haru's father's pointless objections I took the problem page he was reading.

"Prove that 100 sheets of paper, 11.5 cm on each side, will stack perfectly when they are dropped from a height of 3 meters."

… this is a Math question? This looks more like physics to me.

 _Well, go ahead and try to solve it, Shichi._

Let's see now… the problem is asking us to drop a pile of papers from up high and ensure they will land perfectly down below. The hard part here is that the air resistance forces the papers apart and sends them in different directions.

How to counteract the air resistance…?

I then noticed a couple of eraser shavings from the sheet where some wrongs answers had apparently been scrubbed out.

Erase…

… why not just erase the air resistance entirely?

"Vacuum," I said aloud, to nearly everyone's confusion.

"What?" Aniki asked, looking confused.

"This isn't a math problem - it's a physics problem. The reason why they're separating in the first place is that of air resistance. Put the stack of papers in a perfect vacuum, which has no air resistance, and all the papers will drop to the ground like a pile of rocks, right on top of each other."

Everyone digested my explanation. Haru's father looked constipated, which look rather hilarious. Haru, Aniki, and Yamamoto were in shock, their mouths gaping open.

Reborn began to clap. "Excellent point, Shichi. Alternatively, you could glue the papers together or tape them together - that will make the bonds between the papers too strong for the air resistance to tear them apart."

"Is that all, Reborn?" I asked, hoping he wouldn't bother me.

Reborn, who was in pink-polka dotted pajamas, nodded. "Take the day off - oh, and the next time I catch you skipping out on training, you won't live to regret it."

I shakily nodded, then entered my room and started Training, leaving Aniki and Haru, unfrozen, shouting at each other.

* * *

 **Level Up!**

 **+1 Endurance**

 **+1 Agility**

 **Psychokinesis Level Up!**

* * *

It had been a couple of days since the Haru incident. Apparently, she somehow _fell in love_ with Aniki - and now I'm beginning to wonder if Reborn is drugging them or something, because there is _no_ way that Aniki can change opinions of him this quickly - he tried for years to make friends, and now that Reborn came around everyone is flocking to him like a magnet.

Either way, she seems to be very appreciative of me. Aniki asked me to spend some time with her so that I could get her off his back. Reborn then handed me the homework I had missed and sent me off to work with her.

Honestly, she's not all that bad to talk to. She's rather bombastic and upbeat, which means that she (combined with Chishiki's incessant nagging) can make me grudgingly do my work.

Thankfully, the Neumann memories make things a lot easier for me - as Neumann I was the _biggest_ nerd in the world.

Once my other stats catch up with my Intelligence I'll train it so that I can make headway faster and bring home some good grades.

As for the little side projects Chishiki and I are working on, well, there are a bunch of them. We have three so far - making a Monitalien, figuring out Elettrico Cuoio, and figuring out how the Game works. Asking the Game how it works doesn't seem to work all the time - perhaps the administrators are a lot more selective about what queries they answer now.

Luckily, while I was skiving a couple of days ago (during the Haru incident), I had found the first Dungeon.

* * *

I was busy playing on the swings (because I had nothing else to do) when, in the corner of my eye, I noticed that there was a strange symbol on the Map. It looked like a set of stairs. Once I looked at it Chishiki begged me to go and investigate. Because I was bored out of my mind, I agreed.

I walked to where the stairs icon was, which was near the entrance to the park I was playing in. Alarm bells immediately began to ring in my head - I was getting M.A.D. flashbacks.

 _Oh, Shichi, I think I know what this is - it's a Dungeon!_

What do you mean, it's a Dungeon?

 _Well, what else could it be? The Game told us the Map would show us people, Events, and Dungeons. We know it's not people, because it looks different, and the icon fits Dungeons better than it would with Events. Either way, you should check it out._

And what if it's an M.A.D?

 _Well, they got rid of those, didn't they? Even if it_ is _an M.A.D., all we have to do is high-tail it to the exit, and that's assuming we don't have our indestructibility._

Right, right, the indestructibility- I forgot about that.

Indestructibility was definitely weird, that's for sure. I experimented a little bit more, and apparently, my skin is now stronger than steel, which was relieving. I guess that I would only be able to die of natural causes or diseases or murder (Combat)... basically, I just can't hurt myself anymore, which was a relief.

 _None of that is true, you know. I still think you don't know what your power_ actually _means, do you._

Ignoring Chishiki, I began to think of a way to get into the Dungeon… you know what, let's just do a Mental Command. I want to go into the Dungeon, Game!

A window popped up, and I smiled. No complicated methods here, then.

 **Dungeon Found!**

 **Namimori Woods (Wood Deer)**

 **Areas: 3**

 **Recommended Entry Level: 8**

 **Recommended Boss Level: 12**

Upon the window closing, a strange door entered my sight.

Well, that was a great big pile of 'I don't know'.

 _Try opening the door, Shichi - see if it leads to the Dungeon._

I obey Chishiki and open the strange door that appeared. White light bursts from the inside of the door.

I think this is the way to the Dungeon, Chishiki.

 _Yeah, so go in_.

I'll go in when I'm Level 8 - right now, I'm Level 7.

… _Fine. But you should promise to go in there - I want to see what the dungeon is like._

Sure, Chishiki.

* * *

I headed to the Dungeon - after a couple of days of Training I leveled up, so now I was Level 8, which I promised Chishiki I would be before I entered the Dungeon.

I arrive at the entrance to Namimori Park. The door is no longer there, but I know how to summon it - with a mental command.

 **Namimori Woods (Wood Deer)**

 **Areas: 3**

 **Recommended Entry Level: 8**

 **Recommended Boss Level: 12**

The door appeared, and with a grimace, I opened the door (to Chishiki's delight). White light once again poured out of the opening. I stepped through the threshold and entered the Dungeon.

White light enveloped me for a couple of seconds, blinding me. I squinted my eyes and continued walking.

As I walked, the light around me began to dim. I blinked heavily, trying to get my eyes to adjust to the normal lightning I was now in.

I was no longer in Namimori Park - rather, I was in a forest instead. Colossal trees surrounded me, the trunks as thick as wine barrels. I touched the bark of one of the trees - it felt more like stone than it did wood, with a cold biting touch. I looked to the sky and saw that it was sky-blue, not the luminous green of an M.A.D.

I looked behind me for the entrance, only to find that the doorway had vanished. My eyes widened, and a cool sweat ran down my back.

Chishiki - I think we're trapped in here.

 _Well, there's nothing you can do about it now - oh, and you missed a window._

I slowly turned around to find another window.

 **Welcome your First Dungeon!**

 **You wanted to be in here, so now you're here. This is your first time in a dungeon - do you want to hear more about it?**

 **Y/N?**

I quickly pressed yes, because I needed to know a lot more about Dungeons - specifically, how to get out if I needed to.

 **You thought the cellar or attic was bad? Try one of these. Dungeons are special areas that distinct from the Overworld. They are monster-ridden places, with hostile enemies teeming and lurking around every corner. Dungeons, while seeming like like M.A.D.s, actually have a point - defeating enemies in Dungeons will net you some sweet goodies, and if you complete a Dungeon by defeating a certain amount of enemies and vanquishing the Dungeon's boss, you can get a fabulous prize.**

 **[Next]**

Hey, this is from the tutorial!

 _Hopefully, it's just a reminder, Shichi. Reread it - it might remind you of a couple of things._

Fine. Let's see now… monster-ridden, that's not going to be fun… sweet goodies, that sounds good… the fabulous prize sounds good too.

With that, I pressed Next.

 **Enemies**

 **In Dungeons, your Enemies, usually in the forms of animals and monsters, are those that you must fight. To engage them in Combat, you must first touch them, as you would any hostile. They, like you, are indestructible outside of Combat - so to attack them you have no choice but to touch them. Once you kill an Enemy, you must leave the Area they were originally found in so that they can respawn. Once dead, they will drop an Item for you, which can be most nearly anything.**

 **[Next]**

Okay, pretty simple - Touch Enemies, Fight Them, Kill Them, Get Item, Rinse and Repeat. If I want enemies to come back (not likely) I just have to leave the area and return. I pressed Next again.

 **Areas**

 **Dungeons are divided into Areas, which are small pieces of land. To complete a Dungeon, one must go through all of the Areas of the Dungeon and defeat the Boss. Each successive Area you pass into is harder than the last, with the enemies in the new Area having higher Levels than the enemies in the previous Area. To pass between Areas, one must find the Doorway between the Areas and defeat a certain number of enemies to open the Doorway.**

 **[Next]**

That's a bit inconvenient - having to kill enemies to get to a new Area and having the enemies in the new Area be even stronger than the Enemies in the Areas behind it.

 _It's probably to prevent you from just ignoring all of the enemies and heading straight for the Boss. You know, how you usually play in Games._

Hey, it's called _strategy_.

 _It's called laziness and cowardice, Shichi._

You know, I don't need you insulting me every second, Chishiki.

 _Be someone I can't insult, then_.

Grumbling, I pressed Next - I wasn't going to force my point, because I wanted to learn a bit more.

 **Bosses**

 **Once you have gone through all of the Areas, one last challenge waits for you at the end of a Dungeon. Bosses are the last obstacle in a Dungeon, the final thing you need to fight to complete the dungeon. The Boss is much stronger than the regular enemies, often having entirely different abilities and strengths. Keep your head up and your mind sharp, young one, for the Boss you must fight will be a great difficulty to overcome. Defeating a Boss will give you a great reward, a treasure to behold like no other.**

 **[Next]**

 _Sounds like a good test of your abilities, Shichi!_

'Good test of my abilities'? What am I, a Shonen protagonist?

 _Hey, you're going to be a Mafioso, and Reborn is going to train you to fight for your life anyway. The suggested level for beating the Dungeon is 12, remember - it's what the window at the beginning said the ideal Boss Beating Level is. Bianchi is near that level, so I think that the Boss here is as strong as a Mafioso, then - use it as a test of your abilities, to make sure you're strong enough._

… sure, why not.

 _That's the spirit._

Well, either way, I'm going to want the reward at the end - it sounds like it'll be worth beating the Boss for.

I pressed Next, eager to finish the explanation and get on with the tutorial.

 **Entering and Exiting**

 **Okay, so you want to go into a Dungeon? Open up you Map and search for a Dungeon. Once you've found the Dungeon, ask to enter and you will be provided with a Doorway to get inside. However, since you're already in here, you probably also want to get out. In the Doorways between Areas, you get a chance to go on to the next Area - but more than that, you will also get the option to leave. While you do need to find the Doorway to get out of the Dungeon, you also don't need to kill any of the enemies.**

 **[Finish]**

Pressing Finish, I considered the small tutorial I had just read. Dungeons were designed to make a somewhat safe adventure - giving a little bit of challenge while giving a way out as well. I'm pretty sure that Chishiki wants me to explore the Dungeon, so that's something I'm going to do - right after I find the exit to the Dungeon. Everything will have to come after that.

… _fine. Find the Doorway so that you have an escape route._

I took note of my surroundings again. There was nothing but the thick tree trunks around me, so I looked at my map to see if there is anything that is could tell me. The Map displayed the land I could go to in a strange shape - I recognized the difference in the Map because of the other RPGs I've played before.

According to the Map, there was a boundary behind me (represented by a line). Heading over there just the check, I found nothing. Yet when I tried to cross over the line into the rest of the dappled forest, I found that a smooth and invisible wall blocked me from crossing over.

Well, it looks like the Map is accurate, at least. Now, where to look first? The Map only showed the immediate area around me, so something like a Doorway (which I wasn't sure would show up on a Map in the first place) was probably impossible to find using only the Map.

 _Do you know what a Doorway will look like?_

No, Chishiki, but I think I'll be able to tell a Doorway when I see one, Chishiki.

 _Alright._

So I began to walk around the Area, trying to find the way to the Doorway. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to have much luck for some time - it seemed I was completely alone in the Dungeon.

 _Where are all of the Enemies?_

Of course, Chishiki had to jinx it. As soon as Chishiki said that to me, a deer came out from the side of a tree. I stood and stared for a bit as it meandered about, eating the grass on the field. If one were to look at it in a dark room, only looking at the deer's silhouette, it would seem like the deer was a normal deer.

However, it would only seem that way until you got a good look at the deer. The deer, instead of a normal brown coat, had a pelt that reminded me of the leaves in the trees above. Dappled green fur lined the deer's hide, like camouflage. Above its head were the following words in grey:

 **Wood Deer**

 **Level 7**

Well, Chishiki, do I fight or leave?

 _Fight - if you can't beat this you'll be at the mercy of any other Enemy as well._

Fair point.

With a yell, I charged the grazing deer. The deer heard my shout and its eyes flashed red. I felt a chill run down my spine, but decided that I was already in too far deep and punched the deer…

 **SHOWTIME!**

… and entered combat. The forest around me disappeared and I found myself in a grassy clearing, trees lining the border and Ring. Across me, the Wood Deer charged, running at me full tilt.

Upon seeing the charging deer I froze for a second. I quickly came to my senses, however, and fired my Psychokinesis toward the Deer, at full strength.

The deer soon began to struggle against my psychokinesis, pushing against the force of my mind. I had never used my psychokinesis on something that had actually resisted - the Somnharis didn't really count, as I basically made their spikes implode into their bodies. They couldn't resist something they had no muscular control over.

The deer, on the other hand, was able to fight against my Psychokinesis. Unfortunately, the Wood Deer won the fighting match and it broke through my Psychokinesis, resuming its powerful charge. I dove out of the way as it tackled me, dodging by the skin of my teeth.

I wasn't ready for this.

 _But your psychokinesis did damage, Shichi!_

I look at the Wood Deer and saw that Chishiki was right. The deer had suffered some damage at my hands - even now, it was shaking from its exertion. Emboldened, I shot another psychic blast at it, and then another, and another.

With each successive psychic blast, I knocked off more of its health, and it eventually collapsed. With my seventh blast, I managed to end it, causing the Wood Deer to explode into motes of light.

The world twisted, and I found myself in the Dungeon again. Where the Wood Deer previously was, there was now a bottle of red liquid. I casually picked it up and wondered what I would do with it.

 _Maybe it's a potion?_

Or it could be blood - we don't know what it is?

 _It's probably a potion_

And if it's a poison?

…

So I gingerly placed it into my Inventory.

Not going to touch that for a while.

I found myself alone in the Dungeon again. Now that the danger (temporarily) is over, I found myself shivering. Somehow that was worse than the Somnharis - and I don't know why.

 _It's because you can't escape the deer like you can with the Somnharis - all you had to do with the Somnharis was either kill them or distract them so you could run away. Unless you can distract the Wood Deer for ten seconds, you can't do the same thing._

I suppose you're right.

As I walked aimlessly, I absentmindedly checked my HP with the HUD. I was at 885 HP - I had lost some HP during the fight to dodge the deer. Thankfully, it wasn't that much.

What was definitely more troubling was my MP. Previously it was at its maximum at 1800, but after the battle with the Wood Deer, it was at a troubling 1100.

 _You used seven psychic blasts, remember? Each of the blasts cost you 100 MP - remember what the Skill Page said?_

100 MP? That's how much it costs?

 _It means you can only fire off eighteen psychic blasts total, Shichi._

Okay, no more getting into fights, then.

Of course, I had to jinx it as well. As soon as I thought that, another Wood Deer pranced into sight, immediately locking eyes with me, before charging.

I immediately used Psychokinesis to keep the Deer as far away from me as possible - using Skills outside of Combat didn't use MP, after all. Unfortunately, it went as well as it did in Combat - the Deer, through pure muscular power, managed to overcome my psychic grip and continued charging.

I dove off to the side like I did in Combat, and the Deer barreled past me.

Okay, Psychokinesis wasn't going to work - what else did I have?

 _Illusions!_

I blinked - other than some mindless training to boost my Level, I didn't think much of Illusions. Yet, strangely, this was the perfect opportunity to use Illusions.

As the Deer turned around, I cloaked myself in an Invisibility Illusion and hoped that it would hold. With Training I had managed to progress myself to Illusions that were a little under five feet tall - it was just enough that I could reliably make myself invisible.

The Deer blinked, and slowly the unnatural aggression left its eyes. It soon went back to grazing peacefully.

I then sighed, and its head perked up, its eyes narrowing. I nearly cursed - I forgot that Invisibility doesn't prevent you from making any sounds.

The Deer began to sniff the air, and I decided to high-tail it. The Illusion was already breaking from the Deer figuring out something was wrong, and I needed to put some distance for it to work.

As I fled the Illusion slowly regained its strength, and I confidently left the deer behind. I continued to go through the Dungeon, my Illusion acting up every now and again.

 _The other Deer might be hearing us, Shichi - that'll weaken the Illusion._

For some reason, I wasn't dissatisfied - I now knew when a Wood Deer could hear me, so I decided to backtrack when my Illusion began to act up. I kept up my vigilance as I looked for the Doorway.

It was around ten minutes since I had escaped from the second Deer that Chishiki had noticed something on the Map. _Hey Shichi, look at the Map!_

I looked at the Map. I was the green dot in the middle, and there were a couple of red dots scattered around me - those must be the Wood Deer (there goes the usefulness of my little Illusion trick). More importantly, though, was a strange symbol. It was in the middle of the Map and was surrounded by a bunch of Deer.

I decided to gain a vantage point and brought myself up in the air with my psychic powers (I mentally kicked myself for not thinking of it before. Chishiki groaned in pain. I also made a note to mentally kick myself in the future if he ever annoyed me too much). Standing in the dense canopy of the tree, I observed the Wood Deer. Unlike the other Wood Deer, which wandered about (unlike their real-life actual deer counterparts, which lived in a herd), these Wood Deer stood like sentinels.

What they surrounded, however, was a strange glowing door that reminded me of the entrance to the Dungeon.

 _That's probably the Doorway, Shichi!_

Okay, I now knew that the Doorway did, in fact, show up on the Map, and that there were guards. I knew that I would only be able to take one more of them in Combat if I was lucky, due to Psychokinesis's MP expenditure. Illusions were no-go since they didn't do any damage - they only tricked the enemy. I couldn't use Basic Flame Expulsion since that would hurt Chishiki.

So, getting into Combat was _bad_ , in other words. I had to find some way to get the Wood Deer away from the Doorway so that I could leave the Dungeon because if even one of them touched me it was Game Over (literally _and_ figuratively).

I dispelled the Invisibility Illusion surrounding me so I could fully concentrate on the problem. Because my Psychokinesis and Illusions had unlimited uses outside of Combat, I decided that I would use them to help me out. The Deer weren't that smart, so maybe an Illusion would help me out.

I created a doppelganger of myself using Illusions and placed it in the view of the Deer to draw them away. Their eyes narrowed, but they didn't charge. I cursed - these Deer were the guarding kind, so _of course_ they wouldn't charge at any opportunity. I dispelled the doppelganger, because it was no use.

Any ideas, Chishiki?

 _Use Psychokinesis on them - it'll be easier this time since they won't see you coming and it'll take them a while to actively fight against it._

Good idea - but how am I supposed to use it? I'll only have a few chances, max, before they wise up.

 _Knock them all on their sides and make a break for the Doorway._

Thanks!

I used Psychokinesis to levitate myself down and faced the Wood Deers. A couple saw me, but they didn't charge. I used Psychokinesis to knock those few down and cloaked myself in another Invisibility Illusion. My mind was pounding, trying to both use the Illusion and the Psychokinesis. It's clear I need more practice with my powers.

I stepped to the Doorway, making sure I wasn't alerting the other Deer to my presence. As I walked I managed to keep the Deer close to me held down, which took a bit of effort. Luckily, all I had to do was increase the weight of their bodies, which prevented them from getting up.

I approached the Doorway, deathly silent, and tried to think through the pain of what I was going to do next.

 _Just ask the Doorway to let you out of the Dungeon! Everything else works by mental commands, so this will probably work my command as well._

I did as what Chishiki said and commanded the door to open to the outside of the Dungeon. The Doorway magically opened by itself, revealing a blinding wall of light.

I stepped out of the Dungeon and landed back in Namimori Park. I just took a couple of deep breaths, trying to calm myself down from what just occurred.

We… we're not going back in there for a while.

 _What do you mean, Shichi?_

Oh, you know what I mean, you literally live in my head.

 _I just want to hear it from you._

Fine. I'm still too weak to face off against the Deer - Level 8 was the minimum, and I still was in huge amounts of danger. I need to get stronger if I want to fight safely in the Dungeon.

 _We should look into getting some weapons, then._

Weapons? I begin to walk home as I ponder the question.

 _Yeah, weapons. Psychokinesis takes too much MP and Flame Expulsion is out of the question, so Illusions are your best bet for a lot of continuous fights. Unfortunately, Illusions can't hurt the Deer, and you don't have any other Skills. Unless you can find an Offensive Skill that doesn't use a lot of MP or hurts me, a weapon is your best bet._

… I guess you're right… say, why _does_ using my Flame hurt you?

 _I don't know wh - what are you thinking…?_

The best way to learn stuff is to experiment ( _Stop it_ ), so I'll try to use my Flame and see how Chishiki reacts ( _STOP IT!_ )

With the thought of protection, I bring the power of my Flame to bear. I feel safe and secure if I ignore Chishiki's painful shrieks and cries.

However, I slowly begin to feel guilty, and I let the Flame die down. Chishiki is silent, and I wait for him to recover.

… _I told you… to STOP IT!_ His voice was filled with rage. _I'M BEYOND PISSED! YOU_ KNEW _IT WAS GOING TO HURT ME! WHY !?_

Because I want you to pop out to see its effect on your physical form.

Popping out another Invisibility Illusion, I waited for Chishiki to show his face. He grudgingly showed me his physical form. Aside from a little bit of soot from who knows where he looked normal…

… except that his gem was cracked. The green gem embedded in Chishiki's forehead had a large crack in its middle, which was spewing a nearly-transparent green gas into the air. However, under my very eyes, the crack began to close itself up, and with a small snap, it glued itself shut.

However, now I noticed that the gem was a little odd. The gem had little oddities and flaws in it, making the gem cloudy. Above Chishiki's head was the following set of words, a set which I hadn't noticed before:

 **Chishiki**

 **Defective Monitalien**

 **Level 0**

Chishiki pulled himself together. "Are you done, Shichi?" He asked in his squeaky physical voice.

"One second," I replied, and used Observe to bring up his Information Page, which was in a strangely dark green.

 **Chishiki**

 **Defective Monitalien**

 **Level 0**

 **Flame: Forest**

 **Species: Monitalien**

 **Age: 4,476,942,571**

 **HP: 900**

 **MP: 2200**

 **FP: 1000**

 _ **Stats**_ **:**

 **Trainables**

 **Strength: 2**

 **Perception: 12**

 **Endurance: 2**

 **Intelligence: 13**

 **Agility: 7**

 **Dexterity: 3**

 **Non-trainables**

 **Wisdom: 10**

 **Effort: 10**

 _ **Traits**_ **:**

 **Krystalloporosis:**

 **Granted by [Defective Monitalien], this Trait gives the Monitalien user a porous Flame Crystal. This makes any FP usage, in the form of Flames or SPH, damage the Flame Crystal and cause excruciating pain to the user. Replacement of the Flame Crystal is necessary for removal of Title and Trait**

 _ **Skills**_ :

 **Telepathy - Lv 2**

 **The ability to enter the minds of your targets, predicting their actions**

 **Power: N/A**

 **Cost: (Lv*10) MP per second**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 ***Caution***

 **Power may not be used on those with Gamer's Mind**

 _ **Reputation:**_

 **N/A (Knowledge of the Game)**

 **Chishiki is a Monitalien. From the planet Gryphis, he was sent to Earth to gather information. He remains active well after the destruction of Gryphis, jumping from host to host. He is currently in the body of Shichi Sawada, aiding him with the exploration of the Game. Due to his cracked Gem, he is incapable of using the extraterrestrial SPH or its more native Flame variant.**

 **Chishiki is attached to Shichi Sawada because of Shichi being his host and the only being he can freely talk to.**

Upon seeing Chishiki's insane Information Page, my mouth opened up, gaping.

Upon looking at my glazed eyes, Chishiki became tensed. "Hey, Shichi, what are you looking at?" He immediately disappeared, although his Information Page, thankfully, didn't. _My Information Page? You used Observe on me?_

Well, yeah. I mean, we needed to know more, right? I've only just seen the words above your head, so it seemed like an Observe would work on you - and it would tell us more, too.

…

I could sense a grudging respect from Chishiki - it seemed like Chishiki took a little bit of pride from being the taskmaster of our duo, always telling me what to do. Seeing me do something proactive must have both irritated him and made him proud.

 _Oh, shut up._

Anyway, your Information Page. First of all, you're Level 0. How do achieve that?

 _By being completely powerless - I could do literally nothing to stop you from lighting the Flame, remember?_

Right - okay, Forest Flame?

 _No idea._

Alright, next. You're over 4 billion?

 _Yep. Of course, I periodically have to erase my memories so I can actually function, but I have lived the monumental age of 4 billion._

But didn't life on Earth start only 3.7 billion years ago, with the stromatolites?

 _Yeah?_

How did you survive for the first billion years of your life?

… _okay, okay, it_ is _possible for Monitaliens to live without a host._

So you lied to me, then, when you said that you would die if you were separated from me.

 _Oh, no, I wasn't lying._

But you just said that -

 _Monitaliens can live independently until they latch onto a host - it's how we're created in the first place. Once we find a suitable host, however, we immediately latch on and become the parasite we're meant to be._

So you admit you're a parasite, then?

 _In a manner of speaking, we do attach to host and use them for our own benefit. Of course, since our objective is to live and learn for as long as possible instead of reproducing, the safety of our host is paramount to our safety. We can use special powers, too._

But your Level is 0.

 _Defective, remember? The Krystalloporosis?_

Is that a real word? It doesn't seem like a real word.

 _Well, it is now._

Oh, by the way, what's SPH?

 _SPH is Space PHeromone. It's a universal pheromone released by all forms of life, even bacteria and plants. Each being's SPH is distinct, like DNA, and they all have different smells. SPH is used by other species on other planets to great effect since the species on other planets can emit a lot of SPH. The amount of SPH on Earth is staggeringly low, though - practically no one uses raw SPH here._

Okay, but what does it _do_?

 _Oh, lots of things. You can use it to communicate, or fire concentrated blasts of it for fighting._

Wait… if you can use this SPH… that means you can fight, right?

 _Well, yes - or at least, I could, if I didn't have Krystalloporosis. Anyway, is there anything else you want to interrogate me on?_

Yep. Your HP is 900?

 _That's probably because my life is connected to yours - which means we share HP._

Oh, okay…

… uh, you can use Telepathy?

 _How do you think we're talking right now?_

True, true… wait, Telepathy can't be used on those with Gamer's Mind, which I definitely have.

 _Maybe the Game is making an exception or something since we're bonded together because I partially live in your mind. Heck, I don't know._

Hmm… anyway, looking at your description, it says that Flames are the local version of SPH.

 _I guess that makes sense… I wonder what that means, though._

…

I found myself at my doorstep.

Well, time to go inside, then.

Kaa-chan was busy cooking food in the kitchen. I didn't pay attention to what the meal was, but it certainly smelled good. I heard groaning from the living room and went inside, only to see Aniki groaning on the couch.

"What happened?," I ask out of curiosity.

Aniki explains to me through his groans. "Reborn… tricked me… reception room… territory… Hibari."

I winced - Reborn was a sadist.

"Well, do you know where he is?"

"He's… in my room… reading… I think?" Aniki passed out.

I took that as my invitation to leave.

I went up to Aniki's room and entered. Just as Aniki had said, Reborn was relaxing in Aniki's room, casually reading a strange book with some images I don't think either of us were old enough to deal with.

Upon hearing the door open Reborn put his book aside and faced me. "Well, what do you want, Shichi?"

"I need a weapon."

* * *

Let's have a guessing game! See if you can figure out what weapon Shichi is going to get!

* * *

Time for Some Reviews!

 **DragonClanMaster says:**

 **That's an interesting PoV for illusions and it does make sense. Though, the whole thing about Mukuro not knowing what flames are in that first fight with Tsuna is stupid. Not you, but in the actual story. I mean, really? He was in the mafia since childhood, and his eye bursts into flames for one of his paths!**  
 **Ehem, sorry for the rant. I've never seen or heard of elDLIVE. Sounds interesting, really, and** **cant wait to see how this crossover continues.**

 **... This was a really long review... -_-**

Nonsense! That was a perfectly long review!


	6. A Boss's Visit

**+1 Strength**

 **Illusions Level Up!**

 **Level Up!**

 **Level Up!**

* * *

I casually turned my new spear around, relishing in the feel. At a little under twice my size, it was hard to get used to at first, but the pay-off was immensely worth it. Just by getting the spear and awkwardly stabbing things a few times I got a Level Up, which was immensely appreciated. It seems like the way to get Level Ups quickly was to gain useful fighting skills.

 _Be a little careful with that thing, Shichi. Weapons like that are dangerous._

Chishiki, that's why we got the spear in the first place. Anyway, I can't hurt myself anymore - Indestructibility outside of Combat, remember.

 _Yeah, but what about_ other _people? They're not indestructible, are they?_

I guess not… but it's just so fun to twirl this thing around!

Once I had gotten my spear and the Level Up that came with it, I practiced a little bit with it. Of course, once I asked Reborn on how to fight with a spear, he gave me a stink eye and told me that I could figure it out. He then went back to his book.

Yep, he had a spear on hand while he was reading his book. I decided not to question it.

Since I didn't get a Skill for using the spear (which kind of sucked, because I could have done a little bit of Training with it), Chishiki figured that the best way to get used to the spear was to simply practice stabbing people with it. I immediately vetoed that, because I wasn't a murderer. I decided to work on the trunks of trees instead - much safer, you know.

I went to some woods outside of town and practiced stabbing the trees with it. It turns out that fighting with a spear is a lot harder than one might think. It was clear that going about this randomly wasn't going to work.

 _Go to the library - maybe there will be something about spears in there._

What are the chances of that, Chishiki?

 _I don't know - but it's more than the chances of you figuring out how to fight with a spear on your own._

So with that, I headed to the library, doing *shiver* research.

Once I entered the rather musty library I high-tailed it for the non-fiction section. I perused the books on display, looking for one that would be able to teach me how to fight with spears. By the hundredth book, I was looking for one that at least explained how people fought with spears in the past.

It took around three hours before I got somewhere even close to what I was initially looking for. I eventually went to a history book, because why not, and finally found some lines discussing how Sojutsu (spear fighting) had changed over the course of centuries. Unfortunately, it didn't describe what it changed _from_ , only what it changed _into_.

What it changed into was nowhere near useful, as it Sojutsu basically disappeared from the battlefront, to be replaced by a ceremonial version only taught in special tradition academies.

At that point, it was getting dark, and I finally decided to call it quits.

What a waste of our time.

 _Hey, it's better than randomly stabbing our spear around!_

Is it? Because when we were randomly stabbing or spear around we learned what _not_ to do - like throw a spear that is almost twice our size.

…

I win.

 _Oh, shut up._

So, sorrowfully, we walked home. On the way, we saw a random explosion from the rooftop of Namimori Middle School, but I decided it was probably Gokudera and his Dynamite, and therefore none of my business.

I got back home and stared at the madness that I saw. Everybody (meaning Gokudera, Lambo, Yamamoto, Haru, and Aniki) was groaning on the lawn out of our house, with the exception of Lambo, who was groaning with his head stuck in a concrete wall.

Next to where Aniki was moaning and groaning was a young androgynous little kid. From the looks of them, they were Chinese (not that I was any particular expert on ethnicity). The kid was wearing an East Asian garb (it was a strange red tunic-dress thing) over some dark pants. The kid was also bald except for a single braid.

Why has everything become so weird lately?

"Aniki?" I ask, concerned for his overall health.

Aniki only groaned in response.

Well, there were a few things I could do. One, I could be callous and completely ignore Aniki's plight, because everything that has happened so far to this family has been his fault (well, his and Dad's and they couldn't exactly control it. But still!). Or two…

 _You know, Shichi, you really shouldn't be so unnecessarily cruel._

Alright, Chishiki.

I sighed. "Come on, Aniki. Let's get you inside."

I picked up my groaning older brother and dragged him inside. He was beyond heavy, given that I'm only 9 years old, but I managed, and I brought him to the living room and dumped him on the couch. Aniki moaned out some thanks, and I decided that I might as well help the others.

Ten minutes and a lot of brute force later, I brought everyone inside. The weird Chinese kid also came inside as well.

I went to the kitchen and grabbed some refreshments for them as they patched themselves up slowly. Aniki was continuously whining over his injuries as Gokudera apologized endlessly to him over Haru's cooing over the crying Lambo and Yamamoto's attempts to placate everyone.

The Chinese kid, meanwhile, was passively staring at everyone, apparently in shock. I wonder what's up with her.

As I served the refreshments, I decided that the kid was interesting enough to merit an Observe. I quickly learned that not everyone should be observed, because the majority of people live incredibly boring lives, never doing anything exciting beyond playing a sport.

As I sat down, my muscles exhausted and worn down, I looked at the yellow words above their head.

 **I-Pin**

 **Human Gas Bomb**

 **Level 8**

 _Human Gas Bomb? Do an Observe on her, Shichi! I want to know more._ Chishiki ordered.

Alright, fine.

 **I-Pin**

 **Human Gas Bomb**

 **Level 8**

 **Flame: Sun Primary**

 **Species: Human**

 **Age: 5**

 **HP: 500**

 **MP: 1200**

 **FP: 1100**

 _ **Stats**_ **:**

 **Trainables**

 **Strength: 8**

 **Perception: 1**

 **Endurance: 9**

 **Intelligence: 5**

 **Agility: 10**

 **Dexterity: 12**

 **Non-trainables**

 **Wisdom: 7**

 **Effort: 11**

 _ **Traits**_ **:**

 **Pinzu-Timed Super Explosion:**

 **Granted by [Human Gas Bomb], this Trait turns the user's body into an enormous bomb, ready to go off at any moment. Garlic gas escapes from the body at an explosive rate, creating an explosion. After exploding the user is left unharmed from the explosion, leaving it as a last-ditch defense mechanism. The Pinzu-Timed Super Explosion is activated through extreme embarrassment.**

 _ **Skills**_ :

 **Gyoza Ken - Lv 4**

 **The ability to use Gyoza as a martial arts style.**

 **Power: (Lv*10) damage per strike**

 **Cost: N/A**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 _ **Reputation:**_

 **25 (Neutral)**

 **I-Pin is a professional hitman from China. Under the tutelage of the Storm Arcobaleno Fon, she has learned the Gyoza Ken, his unique fighting style. She has trained under his tutelage to become an up-and-coming hitman. However, she is now a ward of the Vongola Family, staying at Tsunayoshi Sawada's house for the near future.**

 **I-Pin is only tangentially aware of Shichi's existence.**

 _Break it down?_

Oh yeah, let's break it down.

Let's see now… Level 8, that means that we're roughly the same level of strength (except that I'm stronger than her now, at level… 9, was it?).

 _Last time you checked, yeah._

Right, right… Sun Flame, like Reborn, with yellow words, more evidence for the color-flame hypothesis… She's pretty strong for someone a little over half my age.

 _You have a lot of catching up to do, Shichi._

Well, as for her stats, she has good stats across the board, especially considering her age - except for her Perception score, which is lower than Lambo's.

 _We'll learn about it later, probably._

Traits… Pinzu-Timed Super Explosion. She… _blows herself up_. How does she _survive_ that? How does _anybody_ survive that?

 _Another project?_

No, we have too many. We'll hold off on this for now - we'll probably pick it up along the way on how she survives when she _blows herself up_.

 _Okaaayyy… Gyoza-Ken, then._

Yeah, that's a bit weird. Gyoza is delicious and all, but as a weapon? Not the best choice.

 _Maybe we can get her to demonstrate for us - she'll be sticking around, after all._

Yeah, remind me to talk to Kaa-chan about her letting literally anybody stay here. I mean, we can afford them, but this level of hospitality is crazy.

 _Daredevil Shichi talking about how something is crazy?_

Hey, I can be cautious! I just don't listen to it a majority of the time.

 _Sure, go ahead and try to convince yourself of that. Anyway, what about this 'Storm Arcobaleno'?_

Oh, that? Well, that's probably another connection to the whole color-flame thing we're figuring out. Reborn has a yellow pacifier, has yellow words above his head, is the Sun Arcobaleno, and has Sun Flames. This… 'Fon'... is the Storm Arcobaleno, so he probably has Storm Flames, then, with red words above his head and possibly a red pacifier.

 _That's a lot of guessing._

I'm just using Reborn as a basis, Chishiki. There could be other explanations, too. That's the best theory I can come up with. Do you have a better one?

 _Sure… uh, just let me think for a moment._

You don't know when to lose, do you?

 _Well, anyway, everyone else is properly coming to._

Chishiki was right. Aniki and the others were sitting up, groaning and putting their faces in their hands. I waited a little bit as everyone situated themselves and helped themselves to some of the snacks I placed on the table. In the meantime, I helped myself to some of the snacks as well and began to converse with I-Pin, who was awakening from her shock-induced stupor, like a cloud moves across the sky - slowly.

Before long, though, we had a proper conversation going.

"So, I-Pin, where are you from?" I asked, hoping to get her in a more talkative mood.

"China." I-Pin had a very broken version of Japanese speech, with a very thick Chinese accent.

"Really? I've never been to China. What's it like there?" I forced a smile on my face, widening it drastically.

Luckily, I-Pin's Perception was so low that she couldn't sense the insincerity of my smile, nor of my voice. "China nice. It peaceful and serene."

I could have gotten that from any brochure or kung-fu movie, but whatever. "Do you want to go back?" I asked, faking concern.

I-Pin, though, shook her head. "No. I-Pin also like it here. I-Pin will stay for time being."

"Well, that's nice." It really wasn't. "Can I go upstairs?"

I-Pin nodded. I practically ran up the stairs. Why did I even bother talking to her?

 _You were bored. And now we know you're a xenophobe._

I'm don't have xenophobia! I'm perfectly okay with I-Pin being Chinese. I'm not okay with _everyone_ crowding into this house nowadays. I would say the same thing to Yamamoto-san.

 _Sounds like someone is in denial_.

Pointedly ignoring Chishiki's blatantly false accusations, I went into my room. Today I had no homework, so I was going to avoid Reborn since we didn't have any particular training planned for today.

I entered Training, clicked on Skills because I wanted to work on Psychokinesis today, and was surprised at what I saw

.

 **Select a skill to Train:**

 **Psychokinesis - Lv 3 - 13.7%**

 **Illusions - Lv 3 - 1.2%**

 **Basic Flame Expulsion - Lv 1 - 90.4%**

 **Sojutsu - Lv 1 - 24%**

I cheered to the high heavens without anyone to interrupt me (because I always did Training alone, Chishiki pretty much disappeared for training). I had a Skill for Sojutsu! Now I could train it without a teacher… I think. I better test it out, but it seemed to be a victory on my part.

I pressed on Sojutsu, because it had become much more important than Psychokinesis, and began Training. Training is always different for every different skill at every different level.

Once I had moved the training to the top of the swings in Psychokinesis, it had morphed into me animating a playground, making all of the machines like the swings, merry-go-rounds, etc., move without any human interference. I was still only able to move two machines out of seven, but I was making progress.

I had to do Illusion practice by casting a powerful Illusion on the Training Dummy. My only inclination for the success of an Illusion in Training was if the Progress Bar went up accordingly. The first Level was involved with simply making a larger, realistic visual Illusion - I had to make myself disappear to the Training Dummy.

That was hard, given the Training Dummy is well… a Training Dummy, and I can see through my own Illusions.

Somehow I managed it (by imagining the dummy was _not_ a dummy) and I moved forward in my Illusions Training. The next level of Illusions training (level 2) was simply making myself completely inaudible. I guess that was to teach me how to manipulate sound or whatever. It still took a long time.

Level 3 for Illusions had to do with scent, which is taking an _infuriatingly_ long amount of time. Scent is a sense that is hard to encapsulate. You don't know when you start using it and it's harder to describe things in scent without referring to other things you smell.

That was for Skills. Statistics, meanwhile, were different for each one as well. Strength basically made everything heavier, including myself. Each 'Level' of Strength involves a certain level of work (say, running around a track or some pull-ups) with each level being heavier than the last.

It was torture, and I hated it.

Agility made everything slow down. Well, that was slightly misdirecting. It didn't make _everything_ slow down - only my body. It constantly felt like someone was pushing against my body, making me more through a gel, when I was training Agility.

To make progress in Agility you had to move faster, consistently beating your old time. It was difficult but I manage to do it well. It was significantly easier and more fun than the other two.

Endurance, however, I hated with a passion. Essentially, it's 'How much pain can Shichi take before collapsing?' time. I did my absolute best to last as long as I could, but I was quickly finding that Stat gains for Endurance were few and far between.

Let's not think about that for now. Now let's go for Sojutsu.

Pressing on Sojutsu, I made a Training Dummy appear. My spear then magically appeared in the air in front of me, bobbing slightly. I grabbed it and began to wait for more instructions.

Soon, the Instructions Panel appeared in front of me.

 **Sojutsu Training!**

 **Use Sojutsu! Perform all of the forms correctly to complete Level 1!**

Suddenly, information began to flow into my head. I gritted my teeth as the Sojutsu forms I needed to perform entered my brain, firmly rooting themselves. With a sigh, I passed out.

I came to a couple of minutes later, still in the Training Room. I was able to easily recall the forms of Sojutsu as a result of what had happened to me.

Let's get training.

* * *

(Two Hours Later)

I panted on the floor of the Training Room, trying to catch my breath. Above me, the panel for completion appeared.

 **Congratulations!**

 **You have completed Sojutsu - Lv 1**

 **Moving on to Sojutsu - Lv 2**

It had taken me _forever_ to commit the forms to muscle memory. I always found myself overextending or underextending or spinning around too much or any number of mistakes. Progress was slow as a result.

I don't think I'll be headed back to Sojutsu for some time - it was beyond exhausting.

I closed out of Training and appeared back in my room. Chishiki went back into my subconscious as a result, and immediately he began to rifle through my memories of the Training Room. This was old hat by this point, so I left him to his fun.

While Chishiki rooted around in my brain I began to work on my homework. It hadn't gotten any easier, but in all honesty, it was magnitudes simpler than all of the chaos I had gotten myself in. Within an hour I finished the work and nodded off to sleep, not even bothering to eat my food.

* * *

 **+1 Endurance**

* * *

I sat, somewhat intrigued, on the floor of the Boxing Room. Apparently, Aniki had gotten himself into another sticky situation. Ryohei Sasagawa, a guy who wakes up every morning to jog for an hour straight at the top of his lungs, was fighting Aniki in a boxing match. Above his head was the following set of yellow words ( _Sun, probably_ ):

I was on the sidelines with Haru, Yamamoto, Bianchi, Lambo, and I-Pin. Reborn made us all come and cheer Aniki on as he fought against Ryohei. Bianchi was looking rather bored (as usual), Yamamoto was looking chipper and upbeat (as usual) Lambo was clowning around (you get the picture), I-Pin was patiently waiting for the match to start, and Haru was shouting at the top of her lungs in her support for Aniki.

Aniki desperately tried to get out of the fight with Ryohei, but both Reborn and Ryohei shut him up.

As both of the boxers stood in their boxers, I discreetly Observed Ryohei.

 **Ryohei Sasagawa**

 **Prodigious Boxer**

 **Level 10**

 **Flame: Sun Primary**

 **Species: Human**

 **Age: 15**

 **HP: 1500**

 **MP: 800**

 **FP: 1600**

 _ **Stats**_ **:**

 **Trainables**

 **Strength: 13**

 **Perception: 5**

 **Endurance: 14**

 **Intelligence: 5**

 **Agility: 12**

 **Dexterity: 12**

 **Non-trainables**

 **Wisdom: 3**

 **Effort: 16**

 _ **Traits**_ **:**

 **Boxing Talent:**

 **Granted by [Prodigious Boxer], this Trait allows the user to increase their skill level in Boxing at an alarmingly fast rate, allowing for exponentially fast progress growth in the Boxing.**

 _ **Skills**_ :

 **Boxing - Lv 7**

 **The ability to use your fists to fight for yourself**

 **Power: (Lv*10) damage per strike**

 **Cost: N/A**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 _ **Reputation:**_

 **0 (Neutral)**

 **Ryohei Sasagawa is a middle-school student. He is incredibly talented at boxing, which he trains relentlessly for, never faltering in his quest to become the very greatest of them all. With his talents, he will be sure to rise to the top of the boxing ladder, assuming he doesn't falter along the way. He is currently interested in Tsunayoshi Sawada, for a perceived skill in Boxing Tsunayoshi apparently has.**

 **Ryohei is unaware of Shichi's existence.**

My mouth dropped open. What… what are those _stats_? 13 Strength? 14 Endurance? 16 Effort? How the heck does this random guy have such high stats (well, for anyone other than Reborn)?

And his Boxing level! 7 - that's insanely high!

As the match started, I considered how strong Ryohei was. He had no access to weapons, no special powers, just an incredible boxing talent. Yet he was as strong as I am, at Level 10. Slowly, I begin to realize what kind of person Aniki is dealing with. Someone who can deal out 70 damage per strike.

Then bullets crack, and I duck for cover.

After two bullets are fired, I open my eyes and slowly get up. No one is on the floor dead (thankfully), but I still feel nervous. What had _happened_?

I then get my answer as the fight between Aniki and Ryohei truly begins. While I was musing, Aniki had been unsuccessfully running away from Ryohei, trying to escape from all of Ryohei's punches. It was honestly how I expected the fight to go, so I wasn't surprised.

Now, though, Aniki was facing Ryohei… with a Flame on his head.

 _Shichi, maybe he's in that berserker mode you were in when you fought Bianchi!_

I cast my mind back to that day a week or two ago. Fighting against Bianchi, I had lost any semblance of self-control and simply tried to damage Bianchi as much as possible. That way I was able to survive - yet I had no idea how I got to that way of thinking. According to Chishiki, I was channeling Flames at the time.

Looking at Aniki now, it was clear he was also trying to cause as much damage as possible. He was wildly jabbing at Ryohei, and he was hitting with as much strength as he could muster.

Still, once he was hit, Aniki would go out like a light, no questions asked. It was a matter of when he was it.

 _Aniki is dodging fairly well, though. Look at him._

Hm…

Now that I think of it, why hasn't he been hit? I mean, when I was in that state I didn't particularly care if I was hurt or not - I just wanted Bianchi dead.

But Aniki was dodging each of Ryohei's hits and is countering accordingly. How…

… oh, right. Hyper Intuition. Forgot about that.

 _It's how we're able to dodge most of Reborn's bullets._

It also looks like that dodging ability also lends itself to martial arts, too.

As the fight went on, Yamamoto commented on how fast Ryohei's punches were, which was slightly obvious. Then Bianchi remarked on how he has the skills of a hitman, and I realized that the bar for being a hitman was surprisingly low.

I've already surpassed the bar, as far as I can tell, because I'm stronger than Lambo, who is a hitman, and am as strong as Ryohei, who is acknowledged to be as strong as a hitman.

The battle itself was winding to a close. With a final punch, Aniki sent Ryohei flying past the ropes of the boxing ring onto the concrete ground around them.

 _It looks like the berserker state also gives the user super strength._ Chishiki noted. _More speed too, since you were able to outpace Bianchi with it._

Of course, if Aniki and I didn't have Hyper Intuition, we would be in a whole lot of trouble in this mode.

 _You're telling me - without the automatic dodging you guys would have fallen to the first attack._

Aniki was fretting, the frenzy having left his eyes. Wringing his hands he ran to the rope border and inquired for Ryohei's health. I scoffed at him - nobody's going to get up easily after being thrown across a room, no matter how much Endurance they have.

Then Ryohei gets up and immediately starts shouting for Aniki to join the boxing club, and I wonder why I still expect logic to work the same way as it had before all of this madness.

However, as Aniki evades Ryohei's demands, the door to Namimori Middle School's Boxing Ring opens. A number of kids in robes enter, with the largest kid being flanked by an upperclassman and holding Kyoko Sasagawa in their hands.

I didn't bother paying attention to the drivel of Namimori Middle School's Karate Club. Later, when I felt moderately curious as to what they were actually there for, I found out that they had dragged around Kyoko to parade their newly acquired manager, and went straight to her brother to show off their newly stolen trophy.

Ignoring the misogyny, sexism, and general immorality of the situation (which is TOO DAMN HIGH), the intelligence of these kids was pathetically low. Forget tickling a sleeping bear in the nose - this was ramming a stick into its eye.

It wasn't exactly a power move, considering every single person in there was strong enough to take on their leaders (except for Haru, because she has no fighting ability). The brawl that ensued was hilarious, and while I avoided it, for the most part, only knocking some hollow heads together with Psychokinesis, I made sure to laugh at their pathetic leader for losing to Aniki, especially considering that Aniki threw a _single_ punch.

How on earth these guys won any tournaments was a mystery, I'll tell you.

* * *

 **+1 Strength**

 **Level Up!**

* * *

A couple of days later, I had managed to get my Strength up another point, along with another Level. Now I was at Level 11, which meant that I was stronger than everyone that wasn't a recognized hitman. I had already surpassed Yamamoto's Level 9 and was on my way to conquering Gokudera's Level 12 and Bianchi's Level 13.

Of course, Hibari's Level 18 was a long way away, and Reborn's Level 50… I don't know if that's actually attainable, realistically speaking. I mean, I'll definitely try (because Chishiki will definitely push me to), but _man_ is he tough.

Still, I had easily gone way over and beyond the recommended level to take on the Namimori Woods Dungeon (not counting the Boss). At this point, I felt rather confident in my chances. Raising my strength another Level increased the damage my Sojutsu would do - now I would do 36 damage per strike.

That means that with 20 strikes I would be able to rack up 720 damage, which looks pretty sweet to me.

 _Maybe you're not strong enough, Shichi._

Well, I was able to escape the first time around, right? If I feel threatened I'll just do what I did last time - and since I'm stronger, the Illusions will be even better.

… _be careful._

Hey, you're going to be with me the entire time, right.

Chishiki was silent in his thoughts.

Heading over to Namimori Park, I entered the Namimori Woods.

 **Namimori Woods (Wood Deer)**

 **Areas: 3**

 **Recommended Entry Level: 8**

 **Recommended Boss Level: 12**

Now I actually knew what all of these terms meant, so I jumped right in.

* * *

Once I entered the Dungeon proper I scanned around for Wood Deer. For these battles I would like to stick to nothing but Illusions and Sojutsu, to conserve my MP.

Luckily, within a few minutes of scanning the Map and running across the Woods (I was really feeling the Training buffs - I could actually be somewhat athletic. My classmates were stupefied at how quickly I became athletic, but this takes the cake), I managed to find a Wood Deer. Using an Illusion, I snuck up on the Deer and initiated Combat.

Once I initiated Combat I immediately cast an Invisibility Illusion on myself. Even though the Deer's observations were straining its power, I knew that it would be capable of holding through. I ran to the Deer and immediately began to stab it with my spear.

Immediately it began to suffer damage. I could see that my attacks were working well - even though the Deer knew I was there, its mind wasn't strong enough to actually break my Illusion, allowing me to flow through the basic forms I had gotten from training. I stabbed it repeatedly, and with 20 stabs or so, I managed to kill it.

It had lasted ridiculously long. I immediately gunned for its eyes, because of its proximity and access to the brain, but attacks there phased it as much as attacks to its flank.

The system of combat probably doesn't account for weak points, which was kind of disappointing - I wanted to do critical damage.

 _Oh, just take your victory, would you?_

Fine, fine.

Looking at my MP bar, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it had barely gone down. Looking at the numbers, I had lost only 30 MP for the Illusion - only a 60th of the total MP I could wield.

That means that, with my current method of fighting, I would be able to take on 59 more of these Deer. I would easily be able to go on to the next Area.

 _Don't forget what the Deer dropped, Shichi._

Oh yeah, they dropped something. I bent down to look at what the Deer had dropped. A bunch of papers was stuck in the ground. I rubbed the paper a little bit, getting all of the grime off of it. Once it was legible, I took a look at what it said.

 **Points: 128**

The paper then dissolved into pure light.

What…

 _What are points?_

Suddenly a large window appeared in front of me. More explanations, I guess

 **Points**

 **So you want an actual reward for killing off normal enemies, and normal drops aren't doing it for you? Well, you're in luck! Points are things you can get from an Enemy in a Dungeon to gain cool new skills and unlock events. Want to light things on fire with your mind? Unlock Pyrokinesis, and we will provide you with a way to obtain it! Want to have a loyal friend, minion, or familiar? Buy an Event with your Points and watch destiny unfold! Do you want a Trait? I think you know what to do.**

 **Points are usable at the Store, which can be called upon by a mental command in the Overworld.**

Chishiki and I were silent for a time as we digested what was being said on the window. Points...

Chishiki?

 _Yeah, Shichi?_

We have struck gold with this one.

With that, I prepared my spear, and I went off to slaughter more Wood Deer.

* * *

After twenty minutes of raw, unadulterated combat, I had managed to gain 7 more vials of the red fluid (which I put into my Inventory with Psychokinesis) and 256 more points - 128 points off of two more Wood Deer. With that, I had accumulated a sweet 386 points.

After my nine Wood Deer kills, I came across the Doorway which would allow me to exit. Cloaking myself in another Invisibility Illusion so the sentinel Deer wouldn't see me, I began to debate with Chishiki.

 _Look, Shichi, I really think that you should head back - you've already lost a sixth of your MP. We might not be able to handle Deer any stronger than the ones we have beat so far._

Look, you're being too much of a worrywart, Chishiki. I'm sure the strategy will work well with the higher level Deer as well. We won't know until we try.

… _it's getting late, Shichi. Why don't we try this another day_? Chishiki pleaded with me.

Why don't we try this _today_?

With that, I jumped down, my Illusion holding strongly, and flattened the Deer down. It was much easier this time around, due to my increased strength in Illusions. I walked past the Deer and to the Doorway.

'Open to the next Area', I mentally commanded the Doorway. The Doorway swung open, revealing more Woods in front of me instead of the white light that would transport me out of the Dungeon. I brazenly walked through, reveling in my power.

The new Area of the Dungeon was a lot like the first one. However, the trees were much closer which made navigating much harder. Chishiki wasn't helping me this time, though - it seems like I pissed him off a little bit.

 _Oh, you think?_

Anyway, I looked around for a Deer, so I could kill it and show Chishiki that he was wrong. Unfortunately, there weren't any Deer around, so I was forced to look for a while. Thankfully, after a minute or so, I managed to find a Deer.

Except… it was different than the Deer I had seen before. The Wood Deer that I had seen before looked strange, but this Deer looked even stranger. Its pelt was an even darker green than the pelt of the Deer I had seen before. In addition to that, it had a large crest of prongs above its head, an impressive set of antlers.

Above its head was a set of dark green words:

 **Forest Deer**

 **Level 9**

Then, I decided that this was a good a time as ever to test my abilities on something a lot stronger. I cast another Invisibility Illusion on myself and initiated Combat, tapping the grazing Forest Deer on its flank.

Both the Forest Deer and I appeared in the Combat Arena. The Forest Deer immediately locked eyes with me and began to charge. Right off the bat, I could tell that this Deer was much stronger than the Wood Deer I had faced before - it was faster than the Deer, and probably stronger as well.

Luckily, none of that actually mattered to me. I cast another Invisibility Illusion on myself and made sure that it would handle sound as well.

Then I realized that the Illusion was already straining deeply starting to slip from my control. I almost let out a few choice expletives I learned from listening to Gokudera, and immediately went in for some damage.

I managed to get in ten hits before the Illusion broke completely. The Forest Deer, hate burning in its eyes, turned around to face me. I immediately cast another Invisibility Illusion, and the Forest Deer's eyes became blank and unfocused again.

After another ten strikes from my spear, the Illusion broke again from the Deer's mental struggles. At this point, I was seriously considering just fleeing, then realized that the Deer was faster than I was - it would not go down well.

After casting the Illusion one last time, I hit the Deer another five times. Luckily, that was enough to kill the Forest Deer. With a loud cry, it fell to the ground, defeated. I panted from exhaustion - that was beyond dangerous.

 _What did I tell you, Shichi - you didn't play it safe. Let's find the Doorway as fast as possible so that we can get out of here._

I agreed, quickly picked up the item the Deer had dropped (a strange set of velvety antlers) with my Psychokinesis, placed it into the inventory, and cloaked myself in an Invisibility Illusion. Once cloaked I immediately ran through the Dungeon, checking the Map periodically for the Doorway.

While I did so, I also took a look at my HP and MP. Since I had been lucky with my Hyper Intuition and managed to avoid all of the Forest Deer's hits, my HP was still at its maximum. My MP, though…

 **MP: 1410/1800**

I had used three Illusions in that fight - they broke again and again, so I had to renew them every time the Forest Deer broke out of the Illusion. Three Illusions for a Forest Deer… I would only to fight 16 more of these things without running out of MP.

 _Avoid them as much as possible and run for the exit, Shichi._

Now that an element of danger had returned to the fights, I decided that Chishiki was right. I continued my search for the Doorway because I was currently too weak to safely beat this

Dungeon.

Unfortunately, I encountered more of those Forest Deer. I immediately cloaked myself in the strongest Illusion of Invisibility I had - I was _not_ going to get into a fight with these things if I could help it, not like this.

It took ten minutes or so, but I finally found the Doorway. It was also guarded by a bunch of sentinel Deer, except that these Deer were of the Forest variety. Hoping that my previous method would work, I strengthened the Invisibility Illusion as much as possible and ran for the Doorway.

The Illusion, while under strain, managed to hold. Using Psychokinesis I pushed these Deer aside and escaped from the Dungeon, fleeing into the blinding wall of light.

* * *

I finally escaped into the Overworld, and breathed a sigh of relief with Chishiki.

Okay, so can I be the responsible one now? I'm tired of being stupid.

 _Sure, sure, go ahead. I want to relax and go wild._

…

 _Hey, Shichi, go look at the Store! I want to see what cool abilities we can get! Oooh, maybe we'll get the ability to control Time or Teleport or make everyone dance in a musical simultaneously. The possibilities are eeeeeeeeeeeeennnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnddddddddddddddddlllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssss!_

… got it out of your system yet?

 _Nope!_

Glad to hear it.

While Chishiki was dancing and singing inside my head, I began to walk home. I already had a couple of intense training days before, so I'm pretty sure Reborn will let me get away with one day of not Training.

I wonder what they've been doing, anyway.

I then come across a group of intimidating men in black suits.

Chishiki, what do you think of these guys?

 _They look like they would like to eat rainbow sprinkles and puppies with us!_

… ignoring that, it looks like Chishiki is going to be out of commission for a while. With a sigh, I began to plan my infiltration route.

* * *

It turns out that there were surprisingly few infiltration points around the house. Reborn taught me how to look for areas to get into a house from - unlocked windows, air vents, etc. - but all of the windows were booby-trapped, and the air vents were in ridiculously high places. After a bit of screwing with screws, I managed to get in and crawl through one of the vents on the roof.

Unfortunately, I didn't make it very far once I got inside. The instant I climbed out of the vents and re-screwed the screws, I found myself surrounded by more men in black. They grabbed a hold of me and started interrogating me. Thankfully, Combat didn't start, or I would be in even more trouble.

Eventually, after figuring out that I wasn't going to answer their questions, they dragged me to Aniki's room. I realized that, according to the Map, they weren't hostiles, so I stopped fighting so much and just let them drag me.

They pushed me inside. In Aniki's room, there was a bunch of other men, along with a handsome blonde man, as well as Reborn and a nervous looking Aniki. Above the blonde man's head was the following set of orange words:

 **Dino Cavallone**

 **Family Dependent Boss**

 **Level 17**

Immediately I noted the color, which was orange. This probably meant that he was a Sky Flame since the only other person I had seen with orange text was Aniki, who had a Sky Flame.

"Hello. I've been expecting you." Dino smoothly said. "My name is Dino Cavallone, the boss of the Cavallone Family."

"Hello," the words came out of my mouth, smooth as a river rock. "My name is Shichi Sawada." I then waved to Reborn and Aniki. "Hi, guys. I have a question - why are there so many people surrounding here?"

Reborn gave his patented smirk. "They're members of the Cavallone Family. They came here to protect their boss, like any _normal_ member of a family should." Dang it, he was mocking me, wasn't he?

I decided to keep quiet.

Reborn decided to wave me off. "Go train or work on your homework - Nana will call you down for dinner, and you and Dino can get to know each other then."

I nodded and quickly left the room, everyone's eyes on me.

… _hoo, that was fun. Okay, normal Chishiki is back, what's up?_

Dino's up - what's with these Cavallone people? Why are they here today?

 _We'll probably find out at dinner, with an Observe on Dino._

Good idea. But in the meantime, do you have any suggestions on what we should do?

 _Well, we caught ourselves up on homework yesterday and we can wait a little bit before we absolutely need to do it. Right now, we should come up with a strategy on how to beat the Dungeon._

Right… okay, obvious solution, strengthen Illusions again. If I level up again with Illusions they won't be able to break out of it, and I'll be able to kill them easily.

 _Well, that's one idea, but if we continuously counter stronger and stronger enemies with stronger Illusions, our progress will become too slow - there has to be a limit to how strong Illusions can get, after all._

You mean, a cap or something.

 _Yeah, something like that?_

Well, okay. What else can we work on? Psychokinesis, while strong, uses up way too much MP to be actually viable for lots of battles.

 _True, but it might work out well for fighting a Boss or something. Fast damage against a single enemy - that'll be helpful._

Okay, but we can worry about the Boss later. Let's just try and figure out a method to get past the Forest Deer.

 _Fine. We have Sojutsu - that'll be a worthwhile investment._

That might not help us as much as we want to, Chishiki

 _Actually, increasing the level by one will increase the damage we do by 18, bringing us up to 54 points of damage per strike._

… Are you serious?

 _Our damage by Sojutsu is equal to the product of our Strength, our Sojutsu Level, and the number 2 - remember the Skill sheet we looked at?_

I didn't, so I brought it up for reference.

 **Sojutsu - Lv 2 - 0%**

 **The ability to use spear techniques in combat**

 **Power: (Strength * Lv * 2) Damage per strike**

 **Cost: N/A**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

Right, okay, I see that.

 _Our strength is 9 and our Level is 2, so that's 9*2*2, or 36 damage per strike._

Okay…

 _If we go up another Level in Sojutsu, it'll be 9*3*2, or 54 damage per strike. We'll be able to do 1.5x the damage we could before._

Oh… the power of our strikes is directly proportional to both our Strength and our Level, and since our Level is so low, improving it will drastically raise the power of our strikes.

 _Yep!_

Okay then - what else?

 _Well, those are the Skills we have so far. What about Statistics?_

Well, we could work on Strength - that'll power up our Sojutsu strikes.

 _Yeah, but not by that much._

Still, it's the only one that we know will actually do anything.

 _Right… what about the Stats that make up MP?_

What _are_ those Stats, anyway?

 _I don't know - I've been trying to figure them out, but it's incredibly hard. Those two Stats are… difficult to figure out._

Well, let's think about it. MP is used for Psychokinesis, Illusions, Pyrokinesis, and Telepathy.

 _Those are all psychic abilities - abilities to do with the… oh, I'm an_ idiot _._

What do you mean?

 _Intelligence and Wisdom, Shichi. Those are the two Stats that make up your MP pool_

… okay, now I feel like an idiot.

 _Alright, Intelligence and Wisdom. I don't think you can actually_ train _Wisdom - it's supposed to come naturally._

But we can train Intelligence too.

 _Yeah, but that's out highest Stat, at 11. The training will probably be very difficult, you know._

Well, what other choice do we have - we don't have any other method to grow our MP.

 _Right… so, which will you train? Illusions, Strength, Sojutsu, or Intelligence._

Why not all of them?

 _I meant tonight, Shichi._

… Sojutsu. It has the lowest level, which means that Training it is going to be the easiest. I'll be able to do that tonight, then. I'll do the other three in a couple of days.

 _Well, that's a plan, then._

* * *

 **Sojutsu Level Up!**

* * *

Ugh…

 _Just relax, Shichi. Dinner is going to be ready in a couple of minutes, so just try to get your Strength back up._

Sojutsu is _so_ hard, though. I was in there for hours, and my muscles are aching from all of those forms I had to go through.

 _Well, look on the bright side! Your damage per strike is now 54!_

That's hardly a consolation, Chishiki.

"Shichi-kun! Dinner time!" Kaa-chan called from downstairs.

I groaned and got up, stretched a little bit, then walked downstairs.

Kaa-chan was busy spreading the typical dinner we ate, a bowl of rice and a bit of meat. Bianchi was feeding Reborn, who was eating first. Lambo was banging on the table to get his food, while I-Pin was busy scolding him while her stomach rumbled loudly. Aniki had given up, by the look of his face on the table.

As all of this went on, Dino happily complimented Kaa-chan for her exemplary cooking while spilling rice everywhere. I eyed the mat of rice that he had spilled on the table with distaste. I don't want to be condescending or anything ( _You are condescending, Shichi_ ), but I thought Mafia Bosses were supposed to have manners.

While Dino kept on enthusiastically gorging himself on Kaa-chan's food, I Observed him to see what he was really about.

 **Dino Cavallone**

 **Family Dependent Boss**

 **Level 17**

 **Flame: Sky Primary, Sun Secondary**

 **Species: Human**

 **Age: 22**

 **HP: 2200**

 **MP: 2600**

 **FP: 1000**

 _ **Stats**_ **:**

 **Trainables**

 **Strength: 14**

 **Perception: 15**

 **Endurance: 12**

 **Intelligence: 12**

 **Agility: 10**

 **Dexterity: 15**

 **Non-trainables**

 **Wisdom: 14**

 **Effort: 10**

 _ **Traits**_ **:**

 **Family Dependence:**

 **Granted by [Family Dependent Boss], this Trait weakens the user whenever he isn't around his Mafia Family. The user's strength weakens drastically, to the point where the user's abilities are only a fraction of what they are when they are around their Mafia Family.**

 _ **Skills**_ :

 **Whipping - Lv 4**

 **The ability to use Whip techniques to your advantage**

 **Power: (Lv * Strength) damage per strike**

 **Cost: N/A**

 **Cooldown: N/A**

 _ **Reputation:**_

 **-105 (Dislike)**

 **Dino is the boss of the Cavallone Mafia Family. Tutored by Reborn, he is an accomplished Mafia Boss, restoring the Cavallone Family from the brink of financial collapse. With the lessons he has learned from Reborn, he has come to Namimori as an example for Tsunayoshi Sawada to follow. Without his men, however, his abilities become shells of their former selves.**

 **Dino dislikes Shichi Sawada because he shares Reborn's suspicions that Shichi is an impostor, although he is more hostile of Shichi than Reborn is.**

I began to sweat, nervous. Dino, smelling my fear like a horse, turned at stared at me for a while. I quickly averted my eyes and focused on my food. I could feel Dino's burning stare at the back of my neck, trying to drill a hole in it. Luckily, I knew that he couldn't use Telepathy.

That was a small consolation, though.

Eventually, Dino lifted his penetrating gaze from my neck and resumed his upbeat praises of Kaa-chan's cooking. I let out a breath.

Chishiki, what am I going to do?

… _get strong enough to be unafraid of Dino. If you become a higher Level than him, you'll be able to survive a battle against him._

Yeah… I guess you're right.

 _Anyway, you've been gaining a lot of Skills. If you train them up well enough he won't be able to touch you._

Hopefully…

… you know, Chishiki. I need to learn a defensive move.

 _What do you mean?_

Well, I have some abilities to protect myself with. What if I'm hit with an attack I can't dodge. Dino might hit me with an attack like that.

 _We'll have to work on it later, Shichi. For now, let's not worry about it._

With that, Chishiki looked at Dino's Information Page. _Well, we were right about Dino having the Sky Flame. I think it's safe to assume that the color of the words matches their flame type - we have enough evidence for that._

Okay, that's great and all, but look at this stats. They're incredibly high - and I have no idea why. How does someone get their Stats that high, anyway?

 _Lots of training, I guess. Anyway, his Family Dependence makes him somewhat less of a danger - we might be able to escape a battle from him if we absolutely have to._

Suddenly, there was a crash upstairs. Dino shouted "Enzo" before running to the stairs. Aniki and Reborn soon followed.

Intrigued, I followed after them as well. I had finished my dinner, thankfully, so I was able to get up without Kaa-chan telling me to sit back down.

I ran up the steps and arrived at the bathroom door, which was open. There was another loud crash, and I stepped into the bathroom.

A _monstrous_ turtle was rampaging inside, stomping over everything and destroying all of the tiles inside. It had no words above its head, so I don't think I could get into Combat with it.

The minute I got inside, I was whacked by Dino's whip. Luckily, I suffered no pain or damage from it. Aniki, however, wasn't as lucky and got hit across the face by the whip, a red line appearing in its wake.

Dino lightly cursed. "Sorry, Tsuna. I didn't mean to do that."

Reborn smirked. "Now do you see what I mean, Tsuna, when I say he's useless without his men around?"

I blinked. I thought that Dino would simply lose some of his skill with the whip or something, not have it radically backfire on him. I probably wouldn't have to worry about Dino at all, if this was the case.

Suddenly, the chameleon Reborn always keeps on his shoulders jumped off and attached itself to Aniki's face. I blinked and Aniki's face turned to the face of one of Dino's men.

Dino cursed again. "Romario, what are you doing here? Didn't I tell you not to come here." He then picked up his whip and, with some impressive work, managed to wrap his whip around the turtle's legs and flip it upside down.

Okay - just the face of his men is enough to multiply his abilities.

After that, the night was rather typical. Dino hung around in Aniki's room for a little bit before leaving with a smile on his face. I just did my homework and went to bed, too tired to do anything else.

* * *

A young boy rushed through the halls of an important office building. Tripping and stumbling, he knocked over several of the important people working there. He heard curses and swears, and the boy knew that he was going to get into a lot of trouble for what he was currently doing to his fellow workers.

But none of that mattered. Right now, the boy had a job to do. He had to give the boss the news - news that he knew the boss wouldn't like to hear but would despise ignorance of.

He didn't bother with the elevator, because his legs were strong enough to go up the stairs faster. He attracted some weird looks - who would honestly want to go upstairs, they had elevators for a _reason_ \- but that was relatively unimportant to him right now.

He finally reached the floor his boss was on. He ignored Boss's secretary, because she was uninvolved with this, and it couldn't wait, not even for a second.

He passed Tumeric and Oregano - they were chatting outside Boss's door. As he was running by, Tumeric physically stopped him. "Mint! What are you doing, running like this?"

Mint took a deep breath before stumbling out a reply. "I… have a message for Boss. It has to do with Vendicare.

Oregano's and Tumeric's eyes immediately sharpened, before smoothly moving out of the way. They knew that Vendicare, the Mafia Prison, wasn't something to take lightly - the faster CEDEF could respond, the better.

Mint immediately entered the Boss's room. Boss was casually sipping a beer while typing up some documents. Mint respectfully cleared his throat to get the Boss's attention.

The Boss, upon noticing him, smiled. "Oh, hey, Mint. How are you doing?"

Mint stuttered out some salutes. "Sir, I have something you should absolutely read."

The Boss laughed. "Now, now, what do I always tell you guys? Just call my Iemitsu, not 'sir'." Iemitsu began to peruse the documents. "Now, what is this about, then?"

"There's been a breach in Vendicare, Iemitsu, sir."

Iemitsu's eyes widened. "What? A breach?" Concern began to flood his body language - all of Iemitsu's calculated posturing disappeared in an instant.

Mint nodded. "The convict, Mukuro Rokudo, escaped with a series of accomplices. The Vindice have notified all of the large Families to the breach, and are expecting the various families to make accommodations necessary to return Rokudo to Vendicare."

Iemitsu cursed. "And as the advisory group to the Vongola, the Ninth would like my advice on how to deal with this." Iemitsu put his face in his hands and turned to face the wall. "Good grief - what am I supposed to tell him?"

Mint considered the question. "Well, I imagine that the first step in catching Mukuro will be to go where he will go first, and lay a trap for him or something."

Iemitsu nodded at that. "Yes, but the thing is, Mint, that Mukuro only goes after big families. Once he hears that everyone will increase their security and look for him, we don't know what he'll do- he'd be a fool to attack directly, and he's no fool."

Mint shrugged. "Maybe he'll attack the families indirectly?"

Iemitsu began to pace, considering Mint's comments. "Yes, that's a possibility, but where would he strike? There are many ways to hurt a family - he could poison food suppliers, attack individual agents, any number of things."

Mint shrugged. "Well, then, we'll have to wait and see. Monitor any movements he makes, you know?" Then, as an afterthought, he added, "Iemitsu-sir."

Iemitsu nodded. "Good idea." He turned to Mint. "Oh, and by the way? I've been thinking of promoting you. You've done all of your missions successfully, and you even show some psychic talent. CEDEF won't put that to waste." He then waved me off. "I'll try to figure out what I'll say to the Ninth. In any case, you're dismissed." Iemitsu flashed off a charming smile. "See you later."

"Yes, Iemitsu-sir." Mint saluted once more and left the room. Tumeric and Oregano, who were eavesdropping, gave Mint appraising looks.

Once he was out of both earshot and eyeshot of the cameras, Mint smirked. He had the reaction he had wanted out of Iemitsu.

"It's Showtime."

* * *

Well, the results are in, and with a grand total of ONE PARTICIPANT *cheers* *manic applause* *women swooning*, we have our results.

The results in question?

Well, let our Guest speak for himself:

 **Chains, or battle wires like in anime.**

 **Hidding deadly wires**

Not at all! Here is your consolation prize for participating (::).

* * *

Time for a Review!

 **LaStAnOnYmOuSpRiNcE3XD says:**

 **this really should be called the stupid and the dumb**

Thank you for this incredible and insightful review! Now that I know that the story is Stupid and Dumb, I can achieve Nirvana! Thank you, my savior!


	7. Final Note

So, this is it.  
I've decided that making this fic wasn't as fun as I thought it would be - it, so far, has only caused me stress, anxiety, and mild depression.  
Even if more people were to Follow or Favorite, I probably wouldn't continue to update for very long. Writing this is miserable for me now, and I've decided to quit while I still can remember the good memories of making this.  
Maybe I'll continue in the future. I don't know. But I likely don't plan on it.  
If anyone wants to adopt it, feel free to PM me. If you care about the characters, you will have already surpassed me.  
Thank you,  
Metagrossite


End file.
